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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



The Competent Life 

A Treatise on the 
Judicious Development, Direction and Employment 

Of 
Man's Inherited Ability 

To Aid In 

The Betterment of Labor 

By 
Thomas D. West 



Journeyman, Foreman and Manager; Author of 
Standard Educational Trade Works; Member of 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, etc.; 
President of American Foundrymen's Associa- 
tion 1905-06 : : : : : : 



Illustrated 
First Edition 



Cleveland, Ohio, U. S. A. 

The Cleveland Printing & Publishing Co. 

Publishers 

1905 



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D^ 



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~>fO^ 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 5 1905 

Copyright Entry 
COPY B. 






Copyrighted 

1905 

By Thomas D. West 



Dedicated to the Caucasian Race whose Strength, Intelligence 
and Sacrifices have excelled all others in uplifting 
Humanity, but whose elevating and industrial 
Power can wane if Ability to 
develop and maintain com- 
petency is not more 
fully exercised 



CONTENTS 
PART I 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Responsibilities of Civilians, and Injus- 
tice of Shunning Them ... 11 

II. Caucasian Supremacy and Injurious 

Waste of Industrial Power . . 22 

III. Man's Need of a Boss to Govern In- 

dustry and Homes ... 30 

IV. Incompetency : The Need of Public Sup- 

port to Decrease It . .42 

V. Demands for Intelligence and Skill: 

Competency of Common Labor . 52 

VI. Inability of Intelligence Alone to Make 

Competent Lives .... 63 

VII. Environments of and Respect for Edu- 
cation, Skill and Originality . . 69 

VIII. Characteristics Demanded in Vocations, 

and Value of Studying Them . 79 

IX. Iniquity of Wasting Energy and Time 

in the Spring of Life ... 84 

X. Opportunities for and Difficulties Pre- 
venting Attainment of Competency. 97 
XI. Qualities Necessary to Achieve Success 

in Various Pursuits . . . 108 

XII. Judging, and the Directing of Ability to 

Attain Competency . . . 116 

XIII. Need of Technical Education with Skill 

and Plans for Training . . . 124 



CONTENTS 
PART II 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIV. Causes and Extent of Poverty and Pau- 
perism ...... 143 

XV. Restraining the Evils of Drinking and 

Excessive Indulgence . . . 154 
XVI. The Debt of Parents and Importance of 

Winning Children's Affections . 163 
XVII. Acquisition and Injury of Baneful 

Traits and Habits . . .173 

XVIII. Traits Detrimental to Competency and 

Their Remedy . . . . 181 

XIX. Needs and Benefits of Self-denial . 194 
XX. Practicability of Developing Will Power 

and Self-control .... 199 

XXI. Testing and Improving the Capabilities 

of the Mind 204 

XXII. Necessity of Physical and Mental 

Strength and their Development . 210 

XXIII. Value of Realizing the Evils of Immoral 

Practices and Incompetency . . 218 

XXIV. The Folly of Fool's Independence . 221 
XXV. The Misnomer: "We Made Him" . 226 

XXVI. Uncomfortable vs. Skilled Laborer's 

Wage Compensation ... . 229 
XXVII.Benefits of Cheap Wealth; Maintenance 

of Good Wages .... 235 
Index 246-269 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Author's Home . . . Frontispiece of Part I 

PAGE 

Grave Responsibilities of Switchmen and Engineers 13 

Enshrinement of Drink and Depletion of Homes . 25 

Overseer and Workers ..... 33 

The Rising of a Good Boss .... 39 

Unshackled Loiterers ..... 45 
Achievements of Common Laborer's Thrift and 

Woman's Good Management ... 57 
Development of Intelligence and Mutual Admira- 
tion ........ 65 

Overalls and Blouses 74 

Collars and Cuffs 75 

Vocation Day Parade ..... 81 

The Banker's Pros and Cons .... 91 

Apprenticeship Loan Agency .... 105 

Prospective Views of Suggested Training Works . 131 
A Corner in the Author's Study 

Frontispiece of Part II ... 142 

A Prosperous Farm ...... 147 

Suggested Standard Appetizing Cooler . . 161 

Ties That Bind 165 

Habits that Sway the Trend of Minds . . .177 

Achievement of Carelessness .... 185 

Settled in His Habits 201 

Earnest Workers 207 

Exercising in the Rockies .... 213 

Plans for a Workingman's Home . 239, 240, 241 



PREFACE 

The subject of competency herein treated is of suffi- 
cient importance to ever enlist a popular interest, and 
with the attention which it undeniably deserves, it will 
be found to be of much practical benefit to society at 
large and to both sexes of the working class, as there 
is nearly as great a need for efficient development of 
inherited ability among women as among men. 

This work is presented to the Caucasian public as a 
message on the betterment of labor and comes from a 
journeyman to operatives, from an employer to man- 
agers, a man to men. The essays are the fruit of much 
experience and thought concerning the vital question 
of efficiency, its necessity and methods of attainment, 
and is presented with the light and intelligence which 
two score years of active service can give. 

The author claims neither title nor degree and does 
not seek the app elation of "man of letters"; but the 
writer does claim to be the bearer of principles, truths 
and suggestions whereby the development of more com- 
petency can, with the aid of labor saving appliances and 
other improvements, create a wealth-producing power 
that can greatly decrease poverty, provide well for old 
age and render the working classes greater comforts, 
luxuries and respectability, than it has ever enjoyed. 

While this work in no way refers to questions dis- 
cussing labor unions, there can be much gathered from 
its pages to cause these unions to be supported more 
by public opinion according as the members strive to 
practice its teachings. The author has no motive in 



8 PREFACE 

presenting this work other than a sincere desire to in- 
fluence for good the lives of all classes of manual and 
clerical workers. 

The presentation of the subjects of this work will be 
found to differ greatly from any other writings on the 
betterment of labor and is written with a view to in- 
terest overseers and underworkers alike. If its writ- 
ings are correctly interpreted by the operatives and 
managers and given their rightful place in the thought of 
social reformers, the work will have accomplished the 
author's purpose and realized his most sanguine hopes 
and aspirations. 

In conclusion the author desires to note his obliga- 
tions to the helpful labors of his estimable wife; and 
valuable services of his friend, Rev. Clarence J. Harris, 
in editing this work. 

Thomas D. West. 

Sharpsville, Pa., Nov. 1905. 



PART I 



CHAPTER I 

Responsibilities of Civilians and Injustice of Shunning 

Them 

Every country requires overseers and underworkers 
to assume the responsibility of directing and accomplish- 
ing the innumerable functions necessary to satisfy man 's 
needs and advancement. One responsibility rests with 
those who originate and direct schools and colleges, who 
fit the young for professions, trades, clerkships and other 
positions in life, where men and women may labor to 
earn an honest living. 

Another responsibility lies with those who must act 
as presidents, governors, mayors and other official posi- 
tions in civil, military and political government; also 
with the legislative bodies in city, state and nation, 
which make laws to protect property and life. We also 
have those who are responsible for the management of 
farms, stock ranches and fisheries, also mercantile and 
industrial interests, where employment is given to mil- 
lions of people. 

Among responsibilities which may be mentioned in 
detail are: The Artisan who is responsible for good 
workmanship; Bankers, for the safekeeping of deposit- 
ors' money; Bookkeepers, for the correct statement of 
accounts; Business presidents, for ability to direct the 
highest intelligence, and to successfully finance enter- 
prises ; Doctors, for diagnosing disease and the effects of 
medicine ; Draftsmen, for details of designs ; Editors, for 
moulding public opinion; Engineers, for planning con- 
structions, often demanding great ingenuity and ability ; 
Generals, for commanding armies and directing the de- 
tails of war; Inventors, for the creation of new means 
and methods for public benefit ; Lawyers, for the presen- 
tation and prosecution of law; Ministers, for the ad- 
vancement of moral and religious discipline ; Publishers, 
for the dissemination of useful knowledge and the crea- 



12 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

tion of a public interest in literature; Parents, for the 
training of children to live the competent life ; 

Any effort demanding more than ordinary thought, 
action, duty or precaution, generally involves grave re- 
sponsibilities which should not be ignored by those whose 
duty it is to assume them, as is well illustrated in the 
labors of the switchmen and engineers. One of the 
greatest responsibilities, lies with those who are the 
leaders in furnishing employment to all those who must 
labor at some occupation in order to obtain the neces- 
sities of life. Among these leaders are those who have 
money and other valuables to exchange for the com- 
modities of life. These commodities may range from 
a box of matches or other home necessities to the con- 
struction of buildings, railroads, bridges, machinery, 
tools and anything essential to life. 

A study of this phase of life should convince any 
wage earner, having money to purchase the necessities 
of life, that he is as much a capitalist in a way, as any 
man having millions at his command, in the directing 
of mammoth enterprises. The chief difference between 
the small and the large capitalists in helping to keep 
the wheels of industry running, lies in the former often 
having their resources soon exhausted, and then being 
left dependent on those of the latter class, from whom 
they receive more capital by the use of their stock in 
trade, while the rich, because of their enormous ac- 
cumulations of wealth, are able to occupy a position of 
greater responsibility and independence. 

There being so many people who can purchase merely 
the bare necessities of life, or few of its luxuries, com- 
pared to those who are able to contract for the manu- 
facture or construction of work which can maintain 
large industries, we have to accede the greater burden 
of such responsibilities to those possessing the most 
wealth. However, when once the mills and factories 
are started, the responsibility of keeping them in opera- 
tion is often invested in the masses by their causing 
a greater demand for the commodities of life and which 



RESPONSIBILITIES OF CIVILIANS 15 

will often give the impression that prosperity is tak- 
ing care of itself in a way that no faction can easily 
stop it. 

Experience in past booms and depressions in the busi- 
ness world often gives the impression that it is more 
difficult to start a period of prosperity than it is to stop 
one; it all hinges on the safety of investing capital, 
which is a very timid factor and is frightened at the 
least sign of depression. There is a comparison between 
the man with one dollar to invest and the one with 
a million; neither desires to let his money go in busi- 
ness ventures unless the outlook is encouraging and 
the prospect of some profit is certain; and with the in- 
crease of amount invested, will come the larger demand 
for assurance of its safety. 

It always requires much pluck and courage for per- 
sons to invest their money in business ventures, for no 
one can give any guarantee that it will not be lost. The 
great mass of business is done on the credit system, 
which is one great cause for apprehension on the part 
of those entering new enterprises, and this system is one 
of the risky parts of these ventures. 

If all business were done on a cash basis, as for ex- 
ample, the street car industry, which requires the pay- 
ment of money before the trip is completed, then the 
risk of business ventures would not be so great. We 
pay our car fare because we feel sure that the company 
will complete its contract satisfactorily, and carry us 
safely to our destination. When we order a suit of 
clothes from the tailor, we do not pay for it until com- 
pleted; we suspend payment for fear the clothes will not 
be a good fit, and the risk, therefore, is all the tailor's, 
who not only takes the chance of receiving the money 
from the customer, but also on the skill and care of his 
workmen in making the suit. 

What is true of the tailor shop is also true in the 
industrial establishments of manufacturers. In order- 
ing an engine or a boiler, no one wishes to pay for 
it until it is tested; but in the meantime while the sup- 



16 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

plies are being made, the manufacturer must bear all 
risk and aside from the financial obligations toward his 
laborers, he has also to meet the dangers from losses 
which incompetency will cause. After the work is all 
completed and the appliances should prove satisfatcory, 
the company that is trusted for the order may fail and 
cause the manufacturer a loss of so much capital as to 
embarass him so heavily that in time he will fail also. 

There are few manufacturers but who are compelled 
to trust others with their capital to a greater or less 
extent and although the greatest precaution may be 
taken in the selection of firms with whom to deal, never- 
theless the risks are still very great. 

Whenever a man is found who has the good will 
and the pluck to invest his money in business of any 
kind which causes a circulation of his capital, or gives 
employment to labor, he should be encouraged in every 
way and esteemed a social benefactor. The man who 
hoards his money and prevents its circulation is a coward 
and a detriment to the industrial life of his country. 
Should one not desire to invest his money in special busi- 
ness enterprises, he may place it in stocks, bonds, mort- 
gages or banks and thus in a measure further the in- 
terests of his country. This money may not be of direct 
help to operatives, but it is a stimulus to business and 
thereby indirectly benefits all classes in society. 

Having shown many of the ways in which individuals 
are helpful as captains of civilization, we will now 
single out those who have, as a rule, the greatest trials 
and burdens in fulfilling their responsibilities. We refer 
to those filling positions of presidents, managers, super- 
intendents, foremen and other positions employing labor 
in the various pusuits which must meet competition. 

No business can take care of itself; the water may 
turn the wheel by its own force, but the creation of 
power out of this force is the work of a master mind to 
direct and control the stream. 

To be interested in others and their work as in one's 
own is not natural, therefore, it is often necessary to 



RESPONSIBILITIES OF CIVILIANS 17 

have master minds directing the operations of others if 
successful work is to be accomplished. It is this lack of 
personal interest and responsibility that causes a large 
amount of apprehension on the part of the employers. 

Man is naturally fastidious and exacting in accept- 
ing the product of other's labors. In marketing for any 
commodity he will search sharply for possible de- 
fects and may spend hours and days going from place to 
place in order to obtain the best he can as an equivalent 
for the money he wishes to expend. 

Are there any who would say that if men were left 
to themselves to work at their own pleasure and in 
their own way under wage hire, would make the perfec- 
tion in products, or quantity and quality, which they 
themselves search for when buying for themselves? In 
considering this, anyone inexperienced in handling men 
should become seriously impressed with the urgent neces- 
sity of management, and some of the trials and re- 
sponsibilities involved. We say "some" because it is 
impossible for any, never having had the responsibilities 
of large management or overseeing labor, to realize but 
little of the care and obligations involved, and were it 
possible to but half portray these difficulties and re- 
sponsibilities to the inexperienced manager of men and 
under-workers, it would remove many false conceptions 
which the majority of such entertain with regard to the 
duty and cares of the manager. 

Some managers or overseers of labor involving great 
responsibility, are often weighed down with such a load 
of details, strains and perplexity as to make them feel 
that it would be a great relief if they could only be 
locked up in some jail or dungeon where they would be 
unable to perceive any sign of life. To think that any 
one could be driven to such an extreme condition in 
order to secure freedom from responsibility should help 
many, never having experienced such feeling, to partly 
realize how some are called upon to assume more than 
a just share of that which all should help to carry. The 
necessity of all feeling it a part of their duty to assist 



18 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

as much as possible in carrying rather than shunning 
their share of life's responsibilities, cannot be too 
6trongly emphasized. 

If workmen have any trouble or difficulty to worry 
them at their posts of duty, the majority, as a rule, will 
become pettish or ugly and may give up working, even 
though such action might stop important jobs, or shut 
down a whole plant. If all management would act like- 
wise, what would become of the opportunities for working 
men and women to make their living? 

Whenever a workman has any difficulty in perfecting 
work, he generally calls on the management for assist- 
ance, believing that thereby a remedy for the condi- 
tion will be found. This is proper and just as the 
larger pay the management receives is intended, in a 
measure, as a recompense for the trials and extra cares 
it assumes. It is necessary, however, for the employee 
to take into consideration the fact that the more em- 
ployees there are, just so many more calls are certain 
to be made upon the management and therefore its cares 
are greatly increased. The lack of realization of this 
point is made evident to every manager of labor at every 
turn he takes and could be well impressed on the mind 
of any individual employee, if it were possible for him to 
follow a manager for one day throughout all the de- 
partments of his shop, as he attends to all the details 
of the different sections of his business. 

If all workmen were more perfect or capable in over- 
coming difficulties and obstacles and could labor to 
the best advantage without so much advice and coach- 
ing, and also take greater interest in their work so 
that the manager's supervision would add little improve- 
ment, then the responsibility and worry of manage- 
ment would be greatly lessened. Such perfection in all 
individuals will, no doubt, never exist regardless of the 
state of competency which he may attain. Managers 
and leaders will be required in all branches of industry 
so long as man lives by the pursuits of civilization, and 
these must necessarily assume the greater share of tiie 



RESPONSIBILITIES OF CIVILIANS 19 

worrisome responsibilities contingent to the respective 
industries which give employment to man. 

Operatives, by becoming competent workers will lessen, 
to a great extent, the responsibilities and cares of man- 
agement, and they who make an effort in this line and 
become masters in their work are captains among the 
masses, influencing others to give better service to their 
employers, truer patriotism to their country, and nobler 
character for the purification and uplift of the society 
of mankind. 

The disposition and ability to accept responsibilities 
and not quake under them is a quality that makes lead- 
ers. The person that gives up when responsibility is 
placed upon him need never expect to become a leader, 
and can hardly hope to rise higher than the plane of 
the common laborers. In order to successfully assume 
responsibility, one must have confidence in his own 
abilities and willingness to do what is justly expected 
of him. These qualities are dependent on all others 
which are essential in the making of competency. Any- 
one who will shun responsibility whenever possible, is 
far less the man than he who is deficient in ability, yet 
possesses the willingness to do his best. Such contrasts 
may be illustrated by the disposition of a small horse to 
pull a heavy load which a large one had balked on. 

It is not to be inferred that one should be over-am- 
bitious and too zealous to assume responsibility, but he 
should carry what is justly his share. An employer 
assumes responsibility in contracting to do work for 
certain prices and within a given time;— such contracts 
are essential to the maintenance of industries which 
give labor employment and the employer rightly as- 
sumes that the operatives should do their part also. 
The one that acts indifferently to all things except the 
whistle and pay days, and is ever ready to throw up 
a job at the least provocation, interferes with proper 
management and has no right to the full fellowship or 
sympathy of his kinsmen, or employer, or countrymen. 
The reason for this is that they do not conduct them- 



20 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

selves in a way that makes successful industries possible, 
and would soon destroy all unity in society. 

It is the obligation of every being who in any way 
lays claim to the protection, pleasure and comfort of 
civilization, to assume his share of life's obligations. 
Operatives may be fully competent to earn a good liveli- 
hood and thereby be independent in their own right, 
but if there is a disposition to avoid assuming respon- 
sibilities in their own interests or that of others, then 
all their commendable qualities will bring them little 
gain in placing them in the front ranks of the thrifty, 
who accumulate means toward an independent life. 

Some may think that there are many who obtain in- 
dependence without assuming responsibility, and cite 
speculators as an illustration; but such critics have not 
endeavored to fully analyze the responsibility of taking 
risks to win by games of chance. Speculation involves 
the responsibility of risking much of or all one's own— 
or that which belongs to another, and often requires 
nerve and courage which are not of common character. 
In giving games of chance recognition reminds one of 
the old lady who had never been stalled in giving praise 
to anybody, and when asked what she thought of the 
devil said, "well, he is a persevering fellow," and it 
might be added that he had duties of his own which 
existed in demonstrating the injury of immoral practices 
and crimes. 

The "don't cares" and indolent might claim that in 
keeping with the devil's responsibility, they also had 
theirs, which consisted in preventing greed from obtain- 
ing too much wealth. There are few bad or unjust things 
which cannot be excused on some ground or other, but 
whether justifiable, or really necessary to the welfare 
of labor and human life is a question to be answered by 
experience and intelligence. 

It is not the purport of this chapter to go into all 
the pros and cons of its subject, but more to emphasize 
the justice and importance of operatives recognizing that 
they should assist employers to carry responsibility, and 



RESPONSIBILITIES OF CIVILIANS 21 

to aid in every possible way in furthering the inter- 
ests of management, rather than to shirk duty as so 
many do. Again, as citizens of civilization, we all are 
responsible to one another either in business matters or 
social courtesies, as no being can long exist happily apart 
from the presence and assistance of others. 

There will ever be certain obligations for every man 
to assume, whether high or low in life's stations and 
the question to be asked of one's self is, "If everyone 
acted as I do, would it be in the best interests of labor, 
or help to obtain or maintain the highest civilization?" 
This is a test query, and one that needs careful thought, 
nevertheless the consciousness that all must depend upon 
one another, serves to sustain our obligations to assume 
responsibilities. 

The drone, the shirk and the snob may exist at the 
expense of tolerance or charity, but the exemplifica- 
tion of manhood is displayed by him who allows no pre- 
text to excuse his shunning responsibilities, that the 
best interests of his home, his fellow men, and his country 
should command of any who share in the protection and 
pleasures that civilization tenders to man. 



CHAPTER II 

Caucasian Supremacy and Injurious Waste of Indus- 
trial Power 

The prosperity of the masses depends chiefly upon 
the resources of their country, combined with economical 
management, having subservient, competent, earnest, 
patriotic workers, who can have an open market, through 
which to sell its surplus commodities. Any great in- 
ability on the part of the wage earners could so annul 
benefits that might be derived from a country's re- 
sources and open market, as to compel the masses to live 
more like paupers than as thrifty civilians. 

The need of competent, energetic workers, was 
recognized more by pioneers than it is by the established 
communities of to-day. If in the first settling of new 
countries, there existed the same inability, indolence and 
love of ease as is exhibited when they become thickly 
populated, there would not be the advancement that is 
to be seen in such countries as America, England, Ger- 
many and France. The marvelous achievements of these 
four great countries over other nations in all that has 
helped to advance civilization, has created such a feel- 
ing of security with so many Caucasians, that few per- 
ceive the evil practices and tendencies which confront us. 
Instead of advancement augmenting skill, earnest effort 
and more perfection, as it should have done, it has 
caused so many to seek ease and pleasure that com- 
merce, manufacture and the home are suffering for the 
want of more competent managers and workers. 

The Caucasians furnish such a wide diversity of 
ability in the different countries, that between those who 
won't do work when they can and those who would if 
they could, there are grounds for fear, lest the pres- 
ent evil practices, if not checked, will lead our race 
to such incompetency and strife, that we will be unable 
to always maintain our present great industrial suprem- 
acy or take due advantages of modern advancement. 



CAUCASIAN SUPREMACY 23 

The Mongolians are now demonstrating marked am- 
bition to excel and ability to succeed; when these peo- 
ple are in command of the opportunities which they will 
no doubt eventually create for themselves, the world 
may witness an advancement in competency and rapidity 
of improvement, that will surprise the Aryan workers 
of the world. 

There was a time when nearly all nations were so 
isolated from each other, that none need fear foreign 
competition, but with the present convenience of com- 
munication and travel, which has made the most distant 
shores seem but the fording of a river, this is now all 
changed. As self preservation is the first law of nature, 
no country can censure another for doing what it can 
to protect itself against the competition of others. 

It is not to be inferred by the civic development and 
protection of Caucasians, which this chapter advocates, 
that we wish to destroy the friendly co-operation which 
the brotherhood of man demands. 

We believe, that in the marvelous emblems exhibited 
by the planetary system of the great unfathomable uni- 
verse, which shows decisive affinity and control, that this 
affirms to man that each race should move under the 
guidance of one attractive controlling power; but while 
doing this its influence must be such as to aid and sway 
all other races to maintain such harmony of actions that 
the weakness, suffering and wrongs of any one race can 
draw forth the sympathy and aid of others in order to 
establish the universal right and order that should ex- 
ist. 

Man in striving to advance civilization cannot afford 
to ignore the affinity and laws, which the planetary sys- 
tems teach. If he does he cannot expect other than the 
destruction of all feeling for universal fellowship, as 
would occur in nature to destroy all life, did the Omnip- 
otent Power permit the attraction of gravitation to be 
ignored in the control which prevails. 
# * * 

When life was such that kings could not enjoy 



24 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

privileges which paupers can now possess, the masses 
were well contented with the plain necessities of life, but 
man encompassed with the environments of modern 
living, with its privileges which he has to-day, cannot 
be induced to return to the barren walls and earthen 
floors and scant foods which satisfied his ancient sires, 
without becoming disinterested in life. The higher and 
more refined taste of man, is evidence of development 
and as far as man seeks better things, he is betraying 
a more elevated state ; but he cannot be allowed to per- 
mit his tastes and wishes to rise higher than his dispo- 
sition and ability to rightly earn these benefits, without 
serious injury to society. 

It is in the interests of all labor and societies that 
every person should strive to merit the highest "simple 
life" and respectability that he can judiciously provide 
means to sustain. The cultivation of desires for whole- 
some foods, neat clothes, comfortable homes and moderate 
pleasures among the poor to be more like that enjoyed 
by the middle classes is worthy of the greatest encourage- 
ment. All influences, possible of exertion, should be used 
by bosses and working people, as well as by those in any 
other station in life, to make these desires such a pas- 
sion as to excel that which is possible of creation by 
the habit of drinking, or any other cravings which can 
make man a slave to its influences. By doing this, the 
good things of life would be made such a necessity that 
no one could think of living the life seen on page 25, 
or laboring for less than that which would permit their 
obtainance and in order to secure these good things the 
present shiftless loiterers, etc., would be compelled to de- 
velop such competency as would give an equivalent for 
the wages necessary to purchase them. For a descrip- 
tion of view seen on page 25 see page 152. 

The principles involved in the above paragraph it 
is believed are such as would sustain good wages and 
respectability more than by most other factors that have 
been practiced in the past by man. More than this, 
it involves principles that are sound and practical of 



CAUCASIAN SUPREMACY 27 

steady maintenance, without creating the strife between 
capital and labor that has been so injurious to the wel- 
fare of all. This is all possible, because the principles 
are based chiefly upon most all being better, or more 
competent workers, and taking the best advantage of im- 
provements in labor-saving devices, to cheapen the crea- 
tion of wealth. 

The masses realize that they are entitled to privileges 
and comforts of the twentieth century, but too many fail 
to perceive that it is but just and necessary that all 
should labor to share more the greater responsibilities 
which have to be borne if we would rightly maintain the 
higher standard of living, which is best for all to obtain. 
Much of labor's unrest or grounds for complaint can 
be found due to the present incompetency of many man- 
agers as well as employees. 

The men or women who are not grounded from the 
foundation up, in the practical and technical of any 
business or work they undertake to manage, whether it 
is in the home, shop, office or other affairs, can unduly 
increase the cost of production or work to as great an 
extent as the incompetent employees. 

Thirty to fifty years previous very few ever thought 
of going into any business at which they had not worked 
for many years, in order to thoroughly master it, whereas 
to-day, there is much production that is financed or 
managed by persons who are unable by experience to 
do the work which they undertake to manage. Almost 
anywhere one may travel, can be found some having 
their money in a business who are dependent upon in- 
competent hired bosses, or ill- trained employees who too 
often merely do as they please and have little or no inter- 
est outside of waiting for pay-days. This is a condition 
that cannot be commented on favorably and is one far 
from being conducive to the economical production which 
should prevail. 

This is claimed to be a practical age, but actual prac- 
tice would often question its veracity. With all the 
inventions, improvements and advantages which a few 



28 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

of the many have created to cheapen wealth, the masses 
are far from obtaining the benefits which should be de- 
rived from existing conditions made possible by the ad- 
vancement of the age. 

There is little reason why with our present inventions, 
improvements in manufacture and correct values of 
commodities, that any person, with fair health, receiv- 
ing over $1.75 per day, should not before reaching thirty- 
five, be able to own some property, or have a fair bank 
account, aside from having lived in a manner to 
moderately enjoy the pleasures of life. Instead of this 
being the case, we find in the United States that the 
cost of living and building is now so high, that the or- 
dinary working people cannot, with their income, build 
good homes as was more easily the case in the past. Not 
only does the cost of material and skilled work too often 
debar industrious persons from building homes for them- 
selves, but it also prevents many of the wealthy from 
doing so for them, as the rent would not pay as much 
interest on the capital invested as could be secured by 
its being deposited in a savings bank, or good stocks. 

When an unskilled worker receiving fair wages, can- 
not build a neat cottage, having good conveniences, which 
labor is entitled to enjoy, for a price which could afford 
him a fair rate of interest on the money invested, then 
there is something wrong (when such cannot be at- 
tributed to trusts) between the cost of commodities and 
the equivalent given by workers for wages they re- 
ceive. 

The cost of living in the United States has increased 
so much of late years that many fathers with small 
families, not receiving over $1.75 a day, find great diffi- 
culty in making ends meet. The lowest prices for gen- 
eral commodities for the past fifteen years were offered 
during the years of 1896 and 1897, while the average 
cost of the first half of 1905 for two hundred and fifty 
commodities, according to statistics of the commerce and 
labor departments, is about 26% above 1897. In bread- 
stuffs, Bradstreet's Index Price for March 1st, 1905, 



CA UC ASIAN SUPREMACY 29 

showed an advance of over 44 per cent above that of 
1896. 

There are few factors outside of inconsiderate and ar- 
bitrary trusts, that can increase the cost of living so 
much and too often place it above the means of that which 
may be termed, "good wages" for the times, as incom- 
petency among producers. Exorbitant or high prices 
for commodities not traceable to trusts, may be often 
credited to poor management, as well as to incompetent 
employees, for either can cause an increase in cost of 
commodities through incompetency and loitering so as 
to place them above the reach of the working man. 

If, while striving for higher wages, there were also 
strife among workers for greater competency and 
energy, in order to give a better equivalent for good 
wages which is but just for labor to receive, they would 
find themselves able to build more homes and enjoy 
more of life's pleasures and luxuries. This subject is 
treated further in chapter XXVII. 

If we do not create competency in employees, we can- 
not expect to find it in the shop manager, for the reason 
that to be most economical or successful in management, 
requires proprietors or their agents to be skilled in the 
practical, and almost all such should come up from the 
bottom of any vocation, in order to attain complete 
mastery of the business which they desire to manage. 

The intelligence of the Caucasian masses must be 
directed more to the development of the inherited ability 
that dwells within them, if this race would procure for 
itself the full measure of the pleasures, comforts and 
independence which invention and improvements offer 
to those possessing health, energy, intelligence, and per- 
severance. There will be a general awakening to the 
great waste of our intellectual and physical powers, 
unless the ablest among the Caucasians in our leading 
countries will make a strenuous effort to help reverse 
the influences that are now creating incompetency in the 
ranks of our workers. 



CHAPTER III 
Man's Need of a Boss to Govern Industry and Homes 

It has been claimed that no man has a right to boss 
another, but such statements never came from any that 
ever assumed the responsibility of doing anything of 
great importance in the pursuits of manufacture, com- 
merce, or management of the home where assistance of 
others was required. 

The manager, overseer or boss as he is more commonly 
called, is one of the pillars of civilization, and without 
his discipline, law and order could not be enforced and 
man would suffer keenly for the necessities of life. Care- 
less, frivolous, slothful and untrained men or women 
stand greatest in need of these directors and managers. 

Wherever two or more persons are needed in the com- 
pletion of a task there must be a leader or boss. Even 
in the turning of a stone, a very simple operation, it is 
equally as essential, if two persons are required in the 
operation, that one take the lead in directing the work; 
this is true because no two men think alike, and the 
stronger intellect will always influence the weaker. In 
noting the operation cited above, it will be seen that one 
always takes the lead in stepping to some vantage point, 
or is first to give a command, in order that the com- 
bined efforts of the two may be utilized in one direction 
and to the best advantage. 

When we must concede that even in operations of such 
minor importance as cited above, one must be a leader, 
or boss where only two are employed, what must be the de- 
mand for bosses where the various capabilities of several 
hundred men are obliged to be dealt with ? In the varied 
occupations like the removal of heavy loads by hand or 
with the derrick, the building of modern shops, dwell- 
ings and the many various pursuits where common labor- 
ers and many kinds of artisans are required, we see very 
clearly the great necessity of men to direct and boss 



MAN'S NEED OF A BOSS 31 

the operations of those employed. Again the necessity 
of a boss is seen very clearly in iron works where dif- 
ferent operatives like designers, draughtsman, pattern- 
makers, moulders, machinists, blacksmiths and boiler- 
makers are all required in the completing of an engine 
outfit; the need of a boss is also well illustrated in the 
management of the threatre and circus, requiring num- 
erous different characteristics in their employees. 

When we are obliged to think there are people of 
education, claiming intelligence, who advocate that no 
man should boss another, it is enough to compel us to 
believe that there is something radically wrong with our 
present educational system, or that there are some minds 
wholly incapable of conceiving that which is practical 
in the conducting of business, society and government. 
It seems hardly possible that any educated people should 
entertain such ideas, but it is only in line with other con- 
ceptions held by people with reference to the affairs of 
life, and shows the great need of more practical teaching 
than has thus far existed. 

The cause for many holding the impractical ideas of 
life they do is owing to the fact that the workings of 
society and the government are such that the burden of 
responsibility and management rests upon a few while 
the majority never realize such obligations and cares. 
The intricate working of all the forces that make pos- 
sible the existence of man in fellowship with others ; the 
need of law and order and the necessity of leadership in 
commercial and industrial pursuits are factors which 
all persons are not in a position to fully comprehend. 
These conditions prevail in a measure in the govern- 
ment of savages, as well as civilized men, and ever since 
the hour that two beings commingled, one has had to 
take the lead or be the overseer or boss. 

A fact that all should keep in mind is that those who 
do nothing but boss others, are as a rule capable of 
doing the work which they oversee, or have sufficient 
brains to be trained to do it. This shows that should 
all the under workers go out of existence, business, ac- 



32 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

cording to the number of competents existing, could go 
on, whereas were all those capable of making bosses ex- 
tinct, nearly if not all work would cease. These are the 
conditions which cause those who will and are able to 
assume responsibility to be justly recognized as the ones 
who are to be respected as the true supporters of civili- 
zation, and not healthy laggards or incompetents who 
must be bossed in order that they may exist. 

The evidence of man's need of a boss is to be found 
almost everywhere one may go in the homes, offices, work- 
shops or the farms of the people. The injury wrought 
through lack of an efficient boss is well exhibited in the 
farms, or the homes of workmen; this is true because 
in these places man is most free to do as he pleases, or 
is not under the subjection of a manager or the push- 
ing influence of an efficient boss. In driving through 
farming sections, one is often impressed with the great 
difference in their appearances; some incite admiration 
while others are loathsome to look upon. In one we 
have evidence of ambition and energy, in its neat, clean 
and prosperous appearance, while in the other with its 
tumbled-down fences and walls; its fields well littered 
with roots and rocks ; its ill kept stock and its crumbling 
buildings, all these are strong evidences of an indolence 
and sloth which good leadership is sure to remedy. 

As a rule there is little excuse for the existence of such 
want and squalor as is evidenced by some farmers, and 
the trouble lies in their being too indolent, or in not 
having sufficient executive ability to manage their own 
affairs to the best advantage. They are of the class 
that greatly require a boss in order to live in a respectable 
manner. We can find the results of indolence and want 
of an efficient boss in the cities and towns as well as 
in the farm life; the only difference being that the ex- 
hibition of indolence on the farm is often greater because 
there is more there to go to rack and ruin. 

There are certain portions in every city and town 
where the poverty and squalor is on a par with that seen 
on some farms. If it were possible to bring such lo- 



MAN'S NEED OF A BOSS 35 

calities under the directing influence of bosses, as in 
the case of a workshop, there would be more cleanli- 
ness and order. The police in their efforts to suppress 
crime, and the health officers in their preventing the 
accumulation of filth, thus doing away with much dis- 
ease; are officials in the capacity of bosses who bring 
about better conditions in such localities. 

Being poor should not prevent healthy people from 
having their homes clean and orderly. A few additional 
steps can carry the waste matter away from the doors 
to a receptacle away from the house. A little time spent 
in removing rubbish and leveling the ground to make 
it look as though some one was interested in the place, 
instead of wasting one's spare moments in idleness or 
loitering around would leave a marked effect on the 
home. 

If some unshackled indolents had the ruling of their 
homes, subject to other's orders, as when they labor as 
employees, even poverty would not prevent their being 
clean and orderly. Many homes can be found where 
the "Bread Winner" who is temperate and industrious, 
makes good wages which he gives to his wife, and is suffi- 
cient to furnish and support their home like a paradise 
while raising their family; but instead of such, the 
wretchedness of the furniture and the filth that abounds, 
fills with disgust those accustomed to a clean and cheer- 
ful home. There is as much need of creating efficiency 
in women as in men. The wife that is a good house- 
keeper and manager is certainly a great help-mate and 
blessing to man. Too many people require the super- 
vision of bosses in their homes as well as in the field and 
workshop to make them helpful to themselves, or citizens 
worthy of respect. 

Whatever influence can be brought to bear on people 
whose domestic troubles and poverty are so often due 
to their own inability to manage their own homes or 
affairs of life, should be used to make them perceive 
that they have themselves to blame and not others for 
many of their trials. If such people can be brought 



36 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

to concede that many of their troubles are due strictly 
to themselves, it is but a step further, to have them per- 
ceive the wisdom of their often seeking the counsel of 
able employers or outside experienced business men or 
friends, to advise them as to what they should do, when 
events arise that can have a right and wrong way of 
adjustment, or can affect their actions for good or bad. 



Mr. John A. Hobson says in "Problems of Poverty/ ' 
published in London, England, that "modern life has 
no more tragical figure than the gaunt, hungry laborer 
wandering about the crowded centers of industry and 
wealth, begging in vain for permission to share in that 
industry, and to contribute to that wealth; asking in 
return not the comforts and luxuries of civilized life, 
but the rough food and shelter for himself and family, 
which would be practically secured to him in the rudest 
form of savage society. ' ' 

There are, no doubt, cases where all the sympathy 
and assistance that Mr. Hobson solicits are due the un- 
employed, but the author's experience and that of hun- 
dreds of others in perceiving the indolence and worthless- 
ness of so many that have been urged and begged to go to 
work with good wages when times were brisk, makes him 
strong in his faith that Mr. Hobson does not present con- 
ditions in their truest light, at least when applying such 
to a country like the United States. 

It is true there are dull times when some must be 
out of employment, but if a worker has good health, there 
is little reason why in a country of good resources, he 
could not, when times are good, have had employment 
and saved some money for a "rainy day." Where there 
is ability and willingness, there is a way to find some- 
thing to do. The main trouble lies in too many giving 
no heed to the demands for to-morrow, so that they will 
be in a position to accept opportunities which may be 
offered in other localities that may offer them fair and 
steady employment. 



MAN'S NEED OF A BOSS 37 

It is no uncommon thing to learn of many staying in 
crowded localities, with numerous sufferers needing em- 
ployment when there are other sections crying for help, 
as displayed in chapter 5. A great many are entirely 
too shiftless and inconsiderate of themselves and seem 
to think that those who have made an effort to prepare 
for a ' ' rainy day ' ' should share with them. It is chiefly 
this class of people which often preaches that there 
should be an equal distribution of wealth, never stopping 
to think that if the creation of wealth depended on 
them, there would be none to distribute. Such state- 
ments as those of Mr. Hobson, pampers the laggard and 
often does a great deal of harm, in place of getting 
at the root and assisting to remedy the evils so forcibly 
portrayed. 

Another phase of the question is the lack of sub- 
serviency which many operatives have for their bosses, 
especially in prosperous times when labor is scarce. Dur- 
ing such times one can hear at almost every turn "if 
my way doesn't suit you give me my time," and then 
they go a few steps to another place which gladly en- 
gages them because the firm is in great need of men 
and is willing to try almost any one that happens 
along. 

The prosperity which creates such independence often 
leads to the loss of many innocent lives and much de- 
struction of property, and in many cases causes em- 
ployees to be their own worst enemies. In prosperous 
times we read of many more accidents in ratio to num- 
bers employed than in dull times, and few days pass 
but what some disaster is recorded in the papers, where 
lives and property have been lost in railroad, mine, mill, 
dwelling or a street accident, due very often to the care- 
lessness of some employees, who have such little respect 
or fear for their bosses that they are frequently going 
about careless and independent, saying, "if I don't suit 
you, get some one else." This year 1905 which is one of 
the most prosperous that has existed in the United States, 
gives great evidences of the way many people take pros- 



38 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

perity as a license to be indifferent to their own welfare, 
as well as that of others. 

There are very few occupations that do not require 
much care and thoughtfulness on the part of employees 
to prevent accidents. The spirit of "I don't care" is not 
so commendable as many think it is, as few can feel 
their lives are safe when the "don't care" is intrusted 
with any responsibility. It is the manager or boss who 
is in the best position to fully realize the great destruc- 
tion of property and loss of life that can come from 
carelessness of employees. 

Employees must not think that they are the only ones 
subjected to the commands or desires of bosses. No 
one, from a King or President of a nation down to the 
humblest citizen, is free from the supervision of a 
boss; the King and President have their bosses. Are 
they not directed by the will of the public, and do they 
not strive to please by laboring to satisfactorily con- 
duct the affairs of their government ? The business man 
fears, and is bossed by his customers, he does not say 
"I don't care" but instead, labors in every way pos- 
sible to please those who make demands upon him. 

If employees would only perceive the need and ad- 
vantages of laboring more to respect those who assume 
the loads which they themselves are ill-fitted to carry 
or cannot be induced to accept, then the reasonableness 
of the demands of managers, and statements embodied 
in this chapter would be more readily understood. 

While there must be bosses, we must concede that 
there must be good ones. We have too many incom- 
petent bosses, as we have too many poor workers. To 
be an efficient boss calls for one to be more brainy and 
resourceful than those under him. If a boss is so in- 
competent that he is often found soliciting instruc- 
tions from others, as to the proper way to do things, 
he is as far from being the manager or boss he should be, 
and such can never command the respect or the con- 
trol of those under or above him, that he should have. 

Many of the wrongs which capital charges to labor at 



MAN'S NEED OF A BOSS 4* 

present time are often due to the inefficiency of pro- 
prietors or those paid to supervise manufacturing and 
mercantile industries. There is altogether too much ill- 
advised schooling and not enough of right field affair 
or workshop practice to make the manager the competent 
boss he should be over the industry he aims to manage. 

There can be no question of the necessity of a boss. 
All living creatures on land and in the sea have their 
leaders. The universe with all its millions of worlds is 
man's greatest exhibition, or proof of the need of a con- 
trolling power. Every star that can be seen and all that 
lie beyond the power of vision are all " bossed/ ' or held 
in their sphere by a power greater than their own. The 
earth is but one of seven planets that are controlled 
by the sun, which in turn is controlled by other planet- 
ary systems, one controlling the other by its power of at- 
traction until, as a large government, the greatest power 
of all in it is controlled by the united influence of all its 
subjects. 

What greater evidence does a man require of the 
need of bosses and competent ones to govern industry 
and home, than is exhibited in nature by all its vicis- 
situdes and ethereal possessions which are held in the 
vastness of space. Take from these the lessons taught 
and who is there with a sane mind that can teach that 
no man has a right to lead or boss another ? With broader 
understanding of their position, and a greater recognition 
of the value and need of efficient managers, there will be 
fewer employees and unshackled loiterers who will in- 
terpret the absence of the boss as a license to further in- 
crease the incompetency and destitution that disgraces 
the name of man. 



CHAPTER IV 

Incompetency and the Need of Public Support to 
Decrease It 

There would be little necessity of appealing for greater 
development of man's inherited ability among workers, 
if it were possible to have the majority of employees 
assume the responsibilities of management in large es- 
tablishments, where they would be obliged to produce 
acceptable and profitable products against keen com- 
petition, in face of a lack of skilled labor. The reason 
for this is that there would be a sufficient number of 
operatives who would learn by experience the great need 
of competency, and whose influence would be felt in 
an effective manner among those who did not have the 
same opportunity. 

In disclosing incompetency, its extent and evil effects, 
one of the first intimations we have is noted in the 
very general use of the common and suggestive phrase, 
"he is a stick." The meaning of this expression, as 
generally understood, is "worthlessness." People who 
are unable to achieve commendable results in their own 
line of work without being constantly coached and 
guided, are often compared to the able and the in- 
dustrious as sticks are likened to timbers. The ground 
for the comparison is in the inability of these "sticks" 
to assume the larger responsibilities of manly service. 

On the other hand, men and women who possess in- 
telligence and strength, but are loiterers of the shackled 
or unshackled order that prefer a life of ease and idle- 
ness, are often sticks quite as much as any other class 
of incompetents. Many offices, workshops and farms 
have these "sticks," while the streets of every city and 
town, and even the smallest country place, contain some 
of these people. 

Let an investigator enter any large office or workshop 
and ask the employer how his employees differ in effi- 



INCOMPETENCY 43 

ciency and if disposed to answer, the employer could 
often reply that his competent workers were not near as 
numerous as they should be and they differ in all de- 
grees of incompetency. "A man's a man for a' that," 
reads well in poetry, but in the employment of labor, too 
many men stand as apologies for manhood. 

The existing incompetency and loiterism is often the 
cause for high costs of living and large expenditures in 
manufacturing, especially in prosperous times and de- 
bars many employees from receiving the higher wages 
which they should obtain. This point is well taken by 
Elbert Hubbard, the East Aurora philosopher, and we 
take the liberty to quote him: 

"The law of wages is as sure and exact in its work- 
ings, as is the law of life. Every employee pays for 
superintendence and inspection; some pay more, some 
pay less. That is to say, a dollar-a-day man would re- 
ceive two dollars a day were it not for the fact that some 
one has to think for him, look after him, and supply the 
will that holds him to his task. Incompetence and dis- 
inclination requires supervision, and they pay for it, 
and no one else. The less you require looking after, 
the more able you are to stand alone and complete your 
tasks, the greater your reward; then if you cannot only 
do your work, but direct intelligently and effectively 
the efforts of others, your reward is in exact ratio, and 
the more people you can direct and the higher the in- 
telligence you can rightfully lend, the more valuable is 
you life.' ' 

Whenever labor encourages incompetency and in- 
dolence in its ranks, it is doing itself and its country 
injury, in that it reduces the earning power of man in 
giving labor equivalent for higher wages or reduces the 
earning power that is stored within man with which to 
create wealth. 

It must be acknowledged that a community composed 
of all competent, energetic workers would outstrip one 
having but few, in affording all an opportunity to live 
on the best at the least cost. To encourage incom- 



44 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

petency or loitering should be looked upon as a sin and 
this will be more generally the verdict of the world as 
civilization develops. 

The men who are best able to comprehend the great 
differences in ability which exist among employees are 
those who have the management and the directing of 
their operations. These men meet the skilled and un- 
skilled workers under every condition common to life's 
field of labor and are able to read them with remarkable 
accurary. It is very difficult for those not accustomed to 
the handling of men to realize men's weakness and the 
extent to which actual inability and indolence exist or 
may be developed. 

There is a tactful manner of judging as well as de- 
veloping ability which is gained largely by experience. 
It is true that some overseers naturally possess more of 
this tact than others. While it may be truthfully af- 
firmed that many men are "born leaders,' ' nevertheless 
all must have an opportunity to develop the natural 
trait of leadership in order to become masters and 
more successfully direct the operations of others. 

This is an age of reform in business and social life; 
but few changes could bring about a larger benefit to 
labor than the removal of the popular yet erroneous 
conception of the essentials to good management and 
betterment of labor. 

Great interest is aroused by the press and pulpit 
over religious and political questions, and vast sums are 
spent in their interests, but few questions before the pub- 
lic can be of greater significance and have a more vital 
connection to the health and prosperity of business and 
social life than the phase of the labor situation as set 
forth in this work. Let the press and the pulpit, two 
of the most powerful agencies of reform be directed 
toward the need of the cultivation of more competent 
operatives and beneficial results would be noted and ap- 
preciated by even the most critical. Such a movement 
cannot be inaugurated until these forces themselves 
come to a greater appreciation of the present needs 




Unshackled Loiterers' 



INCOMPETENCY 47 

among workers, and gain information relative to the 
great problems of making more competent employees. 

One of the first difficulties that stands in the way of 
a public movement in this line, is that only a very few of 
the majority of citizens realize the losses that incom- 
petency causes the masses. These factors should be 
deeply studied by all who overlook the fact that in- 
competency can, aside from loitering, very largely be 
the basis for imperfect and costly products and cause 
much of the trouble between capital and labor. 

It would be very instructive to many to visit the de- 
partments of any large commercial or manufacturing 
plant and note the different abilities displayed. If the 
company be an old established one the observer will find 
nearly all engaged in their allotted work in a matter-of- 
fact way like clock work, and all progressing, so far as 
appearance goes, as though everything were taking care 
of itself. If, however, all the places were vacated 
and new hands supplied the places of all the old em- 
ployees there would be marked confusion, making chaos 
out of that which had previously existed as harmonious 
industry. Some of the new hands would do well, but 
the majority would not, even though they had had years 
of experience in the line they were to be engaged in. 

In undertaking a study of the existing qualifications 
of operatives the investigator should first endeavor to 
obtain a knowledge of the ideal qualifications and par- 
ticular demands which the work may require, and also 
keep in mind the fact that an employee, who is en- 
gaged in the work of any department, does not neces- 
sarily imply competence, nor give conclusive evidence 
that he is the best man fitted for the position. 

An employer interesting himself in an investigation 
of the abilities of his employees would naturally display 
his "good men'' first. The term "good" when applied 
to a workman by his employer signifies volumes. A 
1 ' good man ' ' is generally good in everything where judg- 
ment, care and perseverance will admit inexperienced 
men to work, aside from being valuable in work in which 



48 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

they are experienced. Good employees are so invaluable 
that overseers often wish it were possible to have them 
serve in several different places at the same time. When 
some special work is needed, this "good man" is wanted 
to do it, and to the dismay of the manager he is often 
engaged at some other important employment where his 
services are equally as essential and invaluable. 

It is not unusual for some concerns to have 60 to 90 
per cent of their employees a lot of "poor sticks," and 
in almost all instances, were it impossible to hold the 
remaining 10 to 40 per cent of their good operatives, the 
concern could not be operated. 

A fair place outside of shops to note the incompetency 
of workmen is in the erection and finishing of iron, brick 
or wooden buildings. In dwelling houses especially, one 
can often find plastering, plumbing, carpentering, paint- 
ing, or papering done in a manner which makes the name 
of skill almost a misnomer. Such poor workmanship 
cannot but provoke the one who has to meet the expenses, 
or who has to live in the dwellings, and incites bitter 
disdain for the existing incompetency of "would-be 
mechanics." When one comes to fully realize the im- 
portance of creating more efficient workers instead of 
decreasing them, as is more the present tendency in 
many localities, we are forced to realize the seriousness 
of the situation, and the necessity for marked and im- 
mediate improvement. 

After the investigator has seen and studied the ' ' good 
men" and their qualities, let him then ask for the weak 
points of the incompetent operatives and which will not 
only be instructive to him, but should cause him much 
surprise as he discovers the extent of inability among op- 
eratives. 

By way of illustration, the author will cite a case that 
existed under a certain management on June 21, 1905. 
On that day a foreman was complaining to his superior 
about the scarcity of good men to fill a vacancy which 
was to occur in the following week, and which if not 
filled would stop the greater part of the plant from 



INCOMPETENCY 49 

running. As such would cause a heavy loss, and be 
very detrimental in many ways to the future of the con- 
cern, the manager anxiously solicited answers from the 
foreman on the objections that he entertained against so 
many of those under his charge. 

There were thirty-three objections raised, nine of which 
were physical and the remainder mental and moral, 
which were as follows: 



1. 


Near sighted. 


18. 


Gossipy. 


2. 


Loss of fingers. 


19. 


Too smart. 


3. 


Little bodily strength. 


20. 


Chronic kicker. 


4. 


Euptured. 


21. 


Shop clown. 


5. 


Lame back. 


22. 


Quarrelsome. 


6. 


Crippled leg. 


23. 


Slovenly. 


7. 


Too small. 


24. 


Unsteady. 


8. 


Crippled foot. 


25. 


A liar. 


9. 


Deformed arm. 


26. 


Pernickety. 


10. 


Drunkenness. 


27. 


Obstinate. 


11. 


Sporty. 


28. 


No patience. 


12. 


Lack of confidence. 


29. 


Visionary. 


13. 


Poor judgment. 


30. 


Too old. 


14. 


No perseverance. 


31. 


Too stiff. 


15. 


Too independent. 


32. 


Too slow. 


16. 


Careless. 


33. 


Inveterate smoker. 


17. 


Stupid. 







Not only do all the above cases exist, but there are 
double and even triple or more than that number found 
in some concerns. 

Where only one drinker is cited in the above, there are 
often in many firms a dozen or more who would be 
off duty a third or more of their time if they thought it 
safe to go so far. 

One half of some firm's employees are often little bet- 
ter than walking sticks, which have hardly the gump- 
tion to stear clear of a mud hole, or grit enough to pull 
themselves out should they get stuck in one, so if one 
should term them a "stick in the mud" he would not be 
very far out of the way. 

Some may say, "pay better wages and get good 



50 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

men." It is a conceded fact that some firms paying 
more attractive wages than others experience little, if 
any relief from the evils of incompetency, and if it were 
possible to fill every position in any certain plant with 
"good men" by reason of better wages over its com- 
petitor it would not in the least alter the issue raised 
herein, for the additional good men they might obtain 
would only rob others of the existing supply. 

There is a universal scarcity of the competent workers 
that should exist, and because one concern might fill its 
shop with the best to be found would in no wise annul 
the existence of too many incompetents, who are usurp- 
ing somewhere, the places of good men, thereby help- 
ing to make the cost of living expensive and that of 
manufacture unduly high, especially in prosperous 
times. 

There are those of course, who will claim that the 
thirty-three objections above cited are somewhat over- 
drawn. However few if any experienced overseers will 
dispute the fact that any one of the thirty-three ob- 
jections named is often very detrimental to the making 
of good, able workmen, or such as should exist, and 
while the objections may be tolerated under some con- 
ditions there are others under which they could not be. 

In chapter XVIII we give some reasons why these 
imperfections can often disqualify one for some posi- 
tions of responsibility, or those demanding of a man a 
good measure of usefulness, or the perfection that should 
be easily attained. 

Those unacquainted with the necessities of produc- 
tion or management may say, if so many employees 
are incompetent or so imperfect, how is it that so much 
work is accomplished, or how can anything be found for 
them to do, and if found for them to do, why the neces- 
sity of having superiors to them if they can be retained 
in their positions. 

Admitting that what the incompetents may do when 
under the able supervision of others is fairly satisfactory, 
though often very costly, there are many concerns which 



INCOMPETENCY 51 

require employees engaged in inferior or common labor 
to be capable to advance and replace capable men who 
might for any reason absent themselves from their posi- 
tions. In fact, many companies at the present state 
of improvement and sharp competition, must have many 
substitutes in reserve in order to operate successfully. 

In this chapter we have dealt with the theme of in- 
competency in a manner showing so far as seems ad- 
visable at this point the fitness of the actual manager 
or overseer of labor, who is held most responsible for 
the perfection of quality and quantity of produc- 
tion, to best realize the need of greater competency ; also 
something of the qualities possible of improvement, to- 
gether with considerations for the many weaknesses com- 
mon among employees. Among the many deficiencies 
existing among operatives, the first nine mentioned are 
physical infirmities for which there is little remedy, 
while the remaining imperfections, fully two-thirds could 
be greatly diminished by proper education and training 
in childhood and in youth. 

Before the necessary education of employees can be 
brought about, the "powers that be" must come to a 
recognition of the present lack of competency and the 
need of larger development of man's inherited abilities, 
and then endeavor to provide ways and means to in- 
sure a remedy for the existing evils. These factors 
could effect great good in directing youths to avoid the 
baneful characteristics which hold the majority down 
in the mire of incompetency, instead of permitting them 
to rise to the solid ranks of the able and competent 
where their natural intelligence and capabilities entitle 
them to stand. 



CHAPTER V 

Demands for Intelligence and Skill — Competency of 
Common Labor 

The opportunity for intelligent unskilled labor, to 
train itself for good positions, is better to-day than 
ever before in the history of the world. This is chiefly 
due to machinery replacing hand labor and the specializ- 
ing of industry, in which unskilled persons, having a fair 
intelligence, can be readily trained to do efficient work, 
and for which a few receive wages as high as some who 
devoted several years to the mastery of a profession or 
a trade. 

It is not to be understood by the above, that any per- 
son of intelligence, is advised to forego an opportunity to 
master any vocation, requiring long experience and 
skill, for persons in such positions should ever be in a 
position to demand higher wages and obtain steadier 
work than those in vocations quickly learned. 

The one that sacrifices several years at low wages, to 
learn any pursuit, professional or unprofessional, is 
justly entitled to much higher wages than those who 
accept a position without any great expenditure of 
time and loss of wages to learn it. However, there 
are opportunities in good positions for intelligent, un- 
skilled workers, who by the exercise of good judg- 
ment, caution and perseverance, can do much better, 
in every way than with common clerkship, pick and 
shovel, or hod carrying. Take for instance street car 
motormen and conductors, for which there is a de- 
mand for employees of certain unskilled characteris- 
tics, who require but a short time to learn their work, 
and yet obtain a fair rate of wages. In a similar line 
there are brakemen and firemen on railroads, crane and 
elevator operators in shops and stores, all of which voca- 
tions, give employment to thousands, aside from the 
large numbers which are required in different lines of 
manufacture. 



DEMANDS FOR INTELLIGENCE 53 

Many concerns by the use of machinery and specializ- 
ing, do work now with intelligent, trained laborers, 
which prior to its introduction required almost all highly 
experienced, skilled employees to do their work. This 
does not infer that the improvements in machinery 
and specializing, as in the total, decreased the demand 
for good experience and skill, as the necessity for more 
machinery or improvements, necessitates a demand for 
more skilled tradesmen, to manufacture them. 

An unprejudiced investigation of the class of labor 
displaced or demanded by different vocations, would 
show that any advance, of improvements in machinery 
generally increases the demand for intelligence to op- 
erate it, and that changes are continually occurring, to 
still further increase the demand, for those of intel- 
ligence and skill or experience, over those of common 
ability. This condition should be hailed with much 
satisfaction by all labor, for the simple reason, that the 
greater the demand for trained hands or skill, the 
better wages will greater number be able to earn; and 
the more money the masses receive, the greater the 
prosperity for their country. 

If conditions were the reverse of that now existing, 
or the times appeared as if the near future's demand 
for trained hands and skill would be very small; there 
would then be an awakening which would cause all to 
welcome and appreciate the coming of any change that 
would insure labor its present advantages. The fact that 
conditions are now helpful to labor, is sustained by every 
evidence, although this fact is but little realized, as 
certain classes of labor are doing that which injures 
themselves, by striving to "kill the goose that lays the 
golden egg. ' ' The practice of some, in placing different 
abilities on the same level, for positions and wages, is 
combating the very principle that is involved in making 
the present generation the best for all labor, that has yet 
existed in the world. What better conditions for labor 
can civilized man ask for, than that of having brains 
stand paramount to muscle in securing him a living? It 



54 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

is such a desirable condition that every person, whether 
he labor in office, store, shop, farm or other lines, should 
encourage all efforts to train men to be competent to 
their highest efficiency and expect recompense according 
to their ability. 

Some thirty to fifty years back, when good intelligence 
had to be more contented with common work, then, many 
of fair intelligence and ambition were excusable for be- 
ing common laborers or clerks. Some may think if the 
precepts of this chapter were lived up to, there would 
be few, if any common laborers or clerks to be had. 
There need be little fear of this during the present gen- 
eration at least, as there are sufficient numbers, who 
cannot or will not carry the responsibilities necessary 
to other than the commonest employment. What is 
more needed, is for man to recognize that the demand 
for intelligence and skill will increase in greater ratio, 
than the demand for common labor, as times advance; 
then let those who have a good or fair intelligence pre- 
pare themselves to fill the places of greatest demand. 

Those who are not fitted by nature for anything higher 
than common labor or clerkship, are not to feel that they 
have no place in man 's work, for while they cannot do the 
labor of the higher intelligence and ability, they are 
highly useful, and civilization will ever demand workers 
to do the common labor of life. In fact while writing this 
chapter, the following paragraph appeared in the " Wall 
Street Journal, " July 28, 1905: "With the prospects 
of bountiful crops to harvest, has come the usual cry 
for farm laborers from the agricultural regions. As a 
result of the marked prosperity in agricultural lines 
there is scarcity of laborers at some of our manufac- 
turing centers. Such conditions prevail notwithstanding 
the enormous influx of emigrants, reaching 11,027,421 
for the fiscal year ended June 30. Foreigners will surely 
continue to seek our shores as long as labor is so well 
employed here. The American tramp will have to frame 
some other excuse than, ' ' He can 't get work. ' ' 

When there is a scarcity of good common laborers, the 



DEMANDS FOR INTELLIGENCE 55 

same holds true, as a rule, of skilled workers in many 
localities, as can be seen by the following extract ot an 
item which appeared in the ''Pittsburg Dispatch, Aug. 
3 1905- "Agents for the Sloss Sheffield Iron and Steel 
Co Birmingham, Ala., have been in Pittsburg seeking 
skilled men and unskilled laborers, but their quest has 
been almost fruitless. Fancy wages were offered but 
even then the supply was far below the demand. ^ ^ 

The above strongly endorses the author's position on 
the demand for good skilled and common labor, and al- 
though it has been stated that 50,000 People now do 
work with the aid of machinery which needed 16 ,000,00U 
persons to do a few decades back, there is now (1905) 
a greater scarcity of good, strong and intelligent laborers 
and skilled workers than has ever existed. Our nations 
of greatest advancement in the use of machinery are to- 
day the greatest in need of intelligent, strong laborers, 
and good, skilled workers. This is largely due to the 
creation of the leisure class and people seeking clerical 
or professional fields, that are overcrowded, in place 
of acquiring skill in trades, and experience in specialties 
that are now calling loudly for competent, earnest work- 
ers, thereby cause a better distribution of workers. We 
are drifting entirely too much to seek the easy and 
clean collar and cuffs situations of life, and developing 
entirely too many seekers of leisure than of labor. 

The one that would rather loaf half his time, or take 
up with common or clerical work, which is easy and clean, 
at low wages, in order that he may ape the leisured class, 
is not entitled to the respect that he is who would take on 
the smut or hard grind of some active industry, whether 
it be, professional or unprofessional, that demands 
his services at good wages, as the more money anyone can 
earn the more profitable and creditable can they be by 
its judicious use, to themselves and to their country. 
The encouragement to common labor is that there can 
be competent laborers, or clerks, as well as competent 
mechanics, and commercial men, and these should learn 
what their "stock in trade" is, and then make efforts to 



56 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

develop that which is best to possess it, as much as the 
skilled worker, professional or business man who wishes 
to make his "stock in trade" bring its best returns re- 
gardless of whether their position permits them to always 
appear the men of leisure or not. 

The competency of the common laborer consists in be- 
ing a temperate, earnest worker, that is fitted for hard 
physical, begrimed labor, and will do as much behind 
an employer's back as before his face. The common 
laborer with the above qualities is entitled to more 
respect than the skilled employee that shirks his duty, as 
the one that does the best that nature has fitted him for, 
is entitled to the credit of assisting his fellow men to 
sustain civilization to the best of his ability, and which 
is all that can be asked of any person who desires to be 
in the rank and file of worthy citizens. 

There is much to be said in favor of many common 
laborers and clerks which cannot be said of many skilled 
workers, and that is, many who have received but $1.25 
to $1.75 per day have homes of their own, and have 
reared respectable children, while some drawing $3 to $8 
per day have not a penny and are in debt, while their 
children, if they have any, are often in rags and tatters, 
showing that it is not always those of the largest incomes 
who make the most thrifty, competent citizens, able to 
do their share in supporting the law and order necessary 
to sustain civilization. For a description of the laborers' 
homes on page 57 see pages 152 and 153. Let the common 
laborer and clerk, though their lot be lowly, maintain 
the respectability creditable to man, and their only loss 
should be that which their inability incurs on themselves. 
All able, industrious, respectable individuals demand 
the esteem of men because of their competency and 
worth, and all consideration should be shown such re- 
gardless the height of their positions of labor. 

# # # 

Another phase of the common labor question that is 
very important to be considered, exists in the methods 
which are advocated by Mr. Charles Booth, of England, 




Achievements of Common Laborer's Thrift and "Woman's Good 
Management 



DEMANDS FOR INTELLIGENCE 59 

in connection with the over-supply of low-skilled labor, 
that is often found in London and other large cities, 
noted in "Problems of Poverty." The greatest evil of 
the over-supply is claimed to lie in the competition 
created to obtain employment and which results in the 
common laborers being unable to secure a self-sustaining 
wage rate. To decrease this ruinous competition two 
remedies are suggested, the first one being as follows : 

"Put practically, my idea is that these people should 
be allowed to live as families in industrial groups, 
planted wherever land and building materials were cheap, 
being well housed and well warmed, and taught, trained 
and employed from morning to night on work, indoors 
or out, for themselves or on government account.' ' 

By the above plan the incompetent workers, loiterers 
and very poor would be placed under the charge of a 
government in groups or communities, and furnished em- 
ployment at wages which were to be considered as ample 
to allow all a decent living. 

The second suggestion of Mr. Booth is the practice of 
bachelorhood and the exercise of restraint in having 
children by any that might marry. 

Mr. Booth's advocacy of "race suicide" is not to be 
commended. The Caucasian race need multiplying not 
diminishing. When we get so that there is over 150 peo- 
ple to every square mile of our holdings of the earth's 
habitable surface it will then be time to consider the 
propriety of restraining marriages and coming of chil- 
dren. 

The form of parental government which Mr. Booth 
advocates has many factors to combat its existence. It 
may be said that such is impractical in one way if no 
other and this is because it would depend upon workers 
who had long been trained in habits that could not 
produce the necessary efficiency in the middle aged or 
elderly laborers to make such industrial colonies a suc- 
cess, an illustration of which is displayed by * ' Settled in 
his Habits," seen in chapter XX. 

The thirteenth chapter of this work advocates training 



6o THE COMPETENT LIFE 

establishments similar to a part of Mr. Booth's scheme, 
but the author's suggestions are chiefly for training the 
young who can be more readily molded to achieve the 
mastery of habits and skill necessary to permanently 
place man above the efficiency of the present average of 
paupers, low skilled laborers or clerks and are the class 
above all, who if they could be furnished steady employ- 
ment at fair living wages would cause a betterment of 
labor that would be very beneficial to all classes of society. 

The hope of the pauper, common laborer or clerk lies 
not in "bounty-fed" colonies or "race suicide," but in 
their becoming better or more efficient workers by means 
of decreasing their baneful habits and striving to elevate 
the best among them to attain skill in any vocation they 
may have some fair ability for. To best achieve this the 
young, not the old, must be sought out to engage their 
services where they can be trained to attain good, thrifty 
habits and a fair degree of skill. 

Establish training works such as advocated in chapter 
13, in connection with informing the young in crowded 
sections of the many opportunities that await industrious 
thrifty labor in many uncrowded localities, and all con- 
cerned in the profitable employment of unskilled labor 
the world over would be lifted to a higher plane of life. 
The numbers of lowly who could not advance them- 
selves would find that those who did, had left them better 
chances to obtain their scanty necessities, and the exam- 
ple would be such as to make the most worthless perceive 
that there were opportunities for common laborers to 
attain commendable respectability if they would but 
strive to embrace them as illustrated by the homes seen 
on page 57. 

Man as a rule readily approves anything that will free 
him from restraint, effort or labor. He will listen to and 
endorse almost any oratory or writing that advocates 
his being taken care of by others, much more than any 
advocation of the truth that he should labor and be re- 
sponsible to himself for what he is. 

The remedy of the evils of any over-supply of low 



DEMANDS FOR INTELLIGENCE 61 

skilled laborers that may exist in crowded cities lies in 
training and lifting men of low station to the highest 
efficiency possible. All common laborers who find it dif- 
ficult to secure employment are not so deficient in brains 
but what they could have been trained in their youth 
to be more valuable workers, or to be able to do some- 
thing other than the commonest labor of life. By having 
more trained efficient workers, the masses will be raised 
to a greater sphere of usefulness. Not only does greater 
ability in man make him able to demand better wages, 
but his wants will be greater in proportion to his in- 
come, and these greater wants mean greater agriculture 
and manufacture, or a greater field for the employment 
of all classes of labor and be in line with the betterment 
of labor advanced on page 24. 

By better training, men can, if crowded out of one 
place, stand a good chance to find employment in another 
locality where some will be glad to welcome his services 
at fair wages. 

As another illustration of the benefits to be derived by 
a judicious distribution of labor we append the following 
statement made by Baron Von Henglemuller of Austria- 
Hungary, published in the Pittsburg Leader, August 
3, 1905, and which displays some of the opportunities 
that often awaits the common laborers of crowded cities 
or over-supplied localities. 

"There is a scarcity instead of a surplus of unskilled 
labor in Austria-Hungary, and farmers are having great 
difficulty in getting enough help to harvest their crops. 
There was an abundance of such labor, but emigration 
has changed the situation entirely. Wages for unskilled 
labor have advanced so that they are now as high prac- 
tically as in America, and there is no object for laborers 
to leave their native land." 

If there were the means and efforts to create efficiency 
and the universal distribution of labor that should exist 
it would not be surprising if, along with the difficul- 
ties of obtaining sufficient highly skilled workers 
as exists today, 1905, there were also a universal scarcity 



62 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

of even the lowest common laborers. This would greatly 
relieve the poverty begotten by lack of employment and 
low wages of which Mr. Booth complains, and which any 
great excess of the lowest unskilled workers in our large 
cities so often create. 

The foundation for betterment of unskilled labor lies 
greatly in the existing and constantly growing demand 
for intelligence and efficiency. If our race will but 
awaken to more fully perceive the needs and opportuni- 
ties which the advance of civilization is creating, it will 
be brought to realize that it can, as a rule, only be excep- 
tional universal adversities or calamities that could 
create any great want and suffering among the working 
classes by reason of "dull times.' ' 



CHAPTER VI 
Inability of Intelligence Alone to Make Competent Lives 

The evolution of man to higher intelligence has ad- 
vanced him to the mastery of beasts, but has not caused 
all to utilize intelligence to the most creditable profit. 
Educational institutions, from the primary school to the 
university, while developing intelligence need to be sup- 
plemented with instructions and experience in learning 
skillfully some one profession, business or tradesman- 
ship, according as one is best fitted for them; with- 
out this training the great majority of lives must be 
failures. 

Intelligence alone cannot produce the highest use- 
fulness; it generally requires a combination of intelli- 
gence and experience to achieve commendable results. 

The most intelligent understanding of the art of swim- 
ming would not enable one to keep his head above water 
very long had he not have had practice. While it is true 
we must have practice in order to swim successfully, it 
does not imply that the possession of good intelli- 
gence is not an aid in assisting one to master the art. 
This illustration displays the necessity of combining 
practice or experience with intelligence, in order to 
achieve best results in all vocations of life, and is one 
that if deeply studied will convince many that looking 
or acting intelligently is alone not sufficient to command 
a good living. 

Our first training develops intelligence and not the 
skill of vocation. This is chiefly due to the fact that 
training to look and act intelligently is a pleasant, clean 
exalting labor that pleases and supports the vanity of 
many people, while learning to be competent in any 
particular profession, business or tradesmanship, de- 
mands disagreeable, hazardous, or unclean work which is 
often humiliating to man's pride. This does not imply 
that obtaining a common school or college education is an 



64 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

easy task, as one can labor as hard at this as in learning 
to be skilled ; and in many cases shorten his life more by 
student labors than by skilled workmanship. The trouble 
lies in those who believe that education is alone sufficient 
to insure a good livelihood. It is true that the university 
education gives great refinement to men and women, and 
is often sufficient for those who have means to live 
lives of ease and pleasure. Civilization can permit a few 
to live "gentlemen's lives/ ' but the great masses must be 
able to earn their own living and the more competent 
such are the more comforts and joy should they obtain. 

One great evil of the twentieth century is the aim of 
so many to ape the life of ease and culture of the leisure 
class. In this parents are often most to blame, and the 
children of the rich have the greatest barriers to the in- 
dependent, useful life. Everywhere one may go, 
especially in the small towns and villages, can be found 
sons and daughters of the wealthy depending upon their 
parents for maintenance. Such incompetency is to be 
pitied. True pride is best supported by a consciousness 
of being able to support oneself, even though one has to 
be black and dirty in doing it. Any in possession of good 
health, who are unable to support themselves, must at 
times be made to feel keenly their incompetency and the 
disrespect of those who belong to the class which is 
trained by practice to do something that will bring a 
good demand for their services and thereby cause them 
to be valuable workers who can support themselves and 
others if need be. 

Many young men and women, tho very intelligent, are 
of little use to themselves or anyone else because of their 
lack of experience in the trials and work affairs of life. 
Some entertain very high ideas of their own importance, 
because they know they look intelligent. If they do any 
labor they think it should be in filling some important or 
high position at a salary far above any skilled person 
who may have given up three or five years at small 
wages to attain experience, and who, when it comes to a 
test, may be much more intelligent to use tact and means 



INABILITY OF INTELLIGENCE 67 

to achieve results than the ones who pose on their fine 
cultivated appearance. 

The highest intelligence anyone posseses cannot make 
up for the loss of experience in teaching them to avoid 
errors in doing things. The idea which some possess, 
that good intelligence alone is sufficient to advance re- 
forms, thwart adversity, or enable anyone to make a good 
living, often creates smatterers or irresponsible indolents, 
who are easily led to believe the teaching of anarchy, or 
other injurious fallacies, that an impractical mind can 
conceive of. . 

One can often see intelligent appearing persons who 
entertain the most impractical ideas imaginable, and 
who solely, by reason of their intelligent appearance se- 
cure many followers. Were it possible to inflict ad- 
versities upon them, or give these sponsers of untried 
fallacies a long practice in the actual management of 
details in some large business where they would be made 
to realize what was practical and what was not in the 
management of men, their visionary reforms would often 
fade away as does a dew before the rising sun, and allow 
their intelligence to so perceive the practical that they 
would have little consideration for any intelligence that 
had not good experience to guide them. 

People may read and study and be in close touch with 
those overseeing employees and details in large concerns, 
and yet should they live the lives of two Methuselahs and 
possess great intelligence, they could not be made to 
realize what was practical in life, the same as those who 
have to combat with the different capabilities and ideas 
of employees, in striving to conduct the details of indus- 
try on a large scale. This is often found true even in the 
lives of great philosophers, and men that have amassed 
great wealth and fame for their executive ability in 
controlling the services of able overseers who they held 
responsible for the details of managing commerce or 
manufacture for them. Some of these giant intellects 
have done or advocated impractical teachings which they 
would not had they the actual experience of every-day 



68 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

practice in handling details or large numbers of em- 
ployees to achieve perfection in production. In other 
words, great as is the intelligence and abilities of many, 
in a general way, some are not the practical beings 
in lines outside of their own experience that they 
should be. 

When there are good resourceful officials or massive in- 
tellects of great executive ability who exhibit mistakes in 
recognizing or advancing the practical, aside from their 
own experiences, what can be expected of those having 
no experience or skill in any form, though they possess 
the greatest intelligence possible to man? 

The greatest struggle of civilization is in discovering 
and enforcing the practical and the pretention of ex- 
perience in intelligence has been its greatest enemy. The 
fight has been in progress during the history of man, but 
intelligence has so overawed experience that in its prog- 
ress to attain and maintain the supremacy it should, it 
has been greatly retarded to the detriment of civilization. 
It is high time that proper estimations on the value of ex- 
perience as well as intelligence were being judiciously 
applied. When this is done progress in attaining the 
millenium so desired by man, will evince much greater 
prospects of speedy achievement than at the present day. 

The possession of good intelligence is the greatest 
blessing bestowed on man, but if not used more for per- 
fecting energy, skill and experience its utility will be 
greatly lost and can often prove more of a detriment 
than a help in developing the better man. 

Let there be an awakening to man's great waste of in- 
telligence, and the need of combining experience with it ; 
and the inability of many to command a good, inde- 
pendent living will be greatly decreased. Such will also 
remove much of the poverty, suffering and crime that 
man inflicts upon himself by endeavoring to have intelli- 
gence alone, be sufficient to make competent lives or fill 
the need of experience and skill. 



CHAPTER VII 

Environments of and Respect for Education, Skill and 
Originality 

There would be greater progress made in the creation 
of competent workers if the intelligent people would 
display appreciation and esteem for the efforts to attain 
skill of the common school graduates as for college 
graduates and those fitting themselves for the professions. 

One may be educated and handle nothing except pen 
and paper, while the skilled workman has a thousand 
and one things that must be done in connection with 
mental work. Being highly educated alone carries one 
little further than theory, while the attainment of high 
skill demands extensive practice as well as the under- 
standing of theory. 

To master the intricacies of skill requires the employ- 
ment of brain and brawn, as exemplified in sculpture, 
painting, architecture, music, and all the fine arts; also 
by mechanical engineering, moulding, blacksmithing and 
all lines of mechanical art. 

The difference between workers, skilled in the fine 
arts, and artisans in the various trades, lies in the differ- 
ence of aptitudes. One may be a great master of music, 
but very deficient in many other qualities that go to com- 
prise the man of good general ability. There are very 
few gifted with the talents which high art demands, 
whereas the aptitudes necessary to master the trades is 
more in evidence. This does not imply that the mastery 
of the mechanical arts requires less brains or native 
ability than that of the fine arts. We have many poor 
artists, likewise poor mechanics, but either can improve 
by study and practice, as can the more talented. We 
come to learn of those who are inferior artists in the 
liberal arts much more readily than in the mechanical, 
for the reason that the efforts of the sculptor, painter 
and the musician are more attractive and interesting to 



70 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

the general public and if at fault have more people to 
criticise their work. The poor mechanics are tolerated 
without having to endure much criticism for the reason 
they are so numerous, to criticise would be too monoto- 
nous a task, and as few think there is any remedy, they 
are let alone, when the opposite should be the rule. 

The masses realize greatly the skill necessary for fine 
arts, but they generally fail to comprehend the qualities 
essential to the mastery of mechanical arts; masters of 
the latter class are nearly as scarce as those of the liberal 
arts, in ratio to numbers required. 

The master of mechanical arts is one who in any cer- 
tain line can do difficult or ordinary work in a perfect, 
prompt manner, without requiring coaching to prevent 
mistakes, and differs from the inferior employee in not 
being obliged, as they are, to so often make excuses for 
blunders, poor workmanship and slow progress. 

It is not because the second and third rate skilled 
" hands' ' are kept employed that they are "A No. 1" 
in their lines, but more because there are not a sufficient 
number of good skilled persons to meet the demand, and 
cause the employer to trust either liberal prices, coaching 
or the acceptance of imperfect work to pull him through. 

Few have yet succeeded in convincing second or third 
rate skilled workers that they are inferior in ability to 
others. If results demonstrate their imperfections they 
esteem the fault something other than their own in- 
abilty. The master mind and hand knows differently 
and realizes that he should look to himself and not to 
others for any shortcomings. The highly skilled know 
it takes the use of brains, study and experience to achieve 
the perfection that is possible. 

Those who possess the necessary ability to master their 
vocation can note the defects of the unskilled much bet- 
ter than the unskilled can themselves. This will always be 
so, nevertheless, if the intelligent world would only come 
to concede the issue raised at the beginning of this chap- 
ter, there would be a greater effort to attain skill and 
thereby cause many of intelligence to become competent 



ENVIRONMENTS OF EDUCATION 71 

workers, who otherwise would never become cognizant of 
their capabilities. 

The "educated" are now accorded very much greater 
respect than is given to skill, and the question often 
asked about one is, "is he educated/' and answered by 
such as "he is from a common school," a "college," or he 
has a musical or medical education. Again we hear it 
said, ' ' he was educated for a teacher, " " minister, " or " a 
lawyer;" also phrases such as "he studied architecture, 
astronomy, geology, mineralogy, painting or sculpture." 
To be an adept in many of the above professions requires 
the use of the hands as well as the mind, still for all this, 
any training for the mastery of such vocations is, as a 
rule, conceded as merely being educated, when as a fact it 
required hard labor and long practice to master the pro- 
fession, and in reality it is the skill and not the education 
that is to be most commended. 

There are vocations which demand little education, 
however, what is unnecessary in a position is often more 
than made up by its demands for skill and which can 
be continually improved by practice. If any one amidst 
dust, dirt and smoke finds that in order to improve he 
must not only keep his mind and hands busy during 
working hours but also occupy his evenings in studies, is 
he not engaged as steadily as the one who is striving to 
gain a classical education? Because some occupations 
requiring skill will not permit its respectable, honest 
workers to always appear clean and tidy or compel them 
to wear overalls and blouses should not prevent their 
being respected, as are the educated, whose labors need 
never soil a collar or cuff. 

Education gets much of its respect from the demands 
on time to obtain it. Many, however, can and do give 
up almost every day and many evenings of a long life to 
increase their skill. Again there are few vocations, aside 
from the liberal arts, which demand the use of mind and 
hand but that can occupy all the spare moments one has, 
if he desires to lead in his special vocation. When one 
stops to consider that as much time and labor, if not 



n THE COMPETENT LIFE 

more, can be consumed in attaining skill as in securing an 
education, then they must perceive that one is due respect 
as well as the other ; even though the vocation requiring 
skill causes the artisan to look begrimed in his labors. 

There are a greater number who continue to increase 
their skill and are more persevering in the development 
of their ability than there are those among the "edu- 
cated" who continue to improve themselves; this is seen 
among the many who put aside their books when com- 
pleting their school or college course; but continue ob- 
taining skill to the end of their life. 

Demand is what creates value in all things. If there 
is a demand for more time to acquire skill than educa- 
tion, as shown above, is it not in keeping with business 
laws that skill should command the esteem due to it. Be 
this as conceded by the thoughtful and just, the facts in 
the case demonstrate the benefit that can accrue to aid 
the true betterment of labor; by a greater universal 
recognition of the environments due to the acquirements 
of skill as well as education, and none who wish greater 
efficiency in working employees should withhold exhibit- 
ing such whenever they can. 

Whatever the difference shown in tendering respect 
for education and skill, none should exist in according 
these qualities to respectability and unassuming honesty, 
whether such be found in the scholar or tradesman. Let 
these, whatever others may exist, be standards to gauge 
respect for men, and Father Time will sway justice, to 
serve classical education and artisans' skill any distinc- 
tion that may be merited to make right and not might 

prevail. 

# * * 

All that exists as achievement in advancing civiliza- 
tion, was created through the spirit of originality in men. 
Some call it inventive genius, but let it be what it may, 
what we treat of is that spirit which causes men to do 
original things in all phases of life, more especially in 
that which pertains to his livelihood. How few stop to 
think or consider that the great majority of people do 




Collars and Cuffs 



ENVIRONMENTS OF EDUCATION 77 

little if anything other than that which they have been 
taught to do. From the hour their minds were first re- 
ceptive, and up through childhood, school, college, office 
or workshop, they occupied themselves learning what 
others have originated and by this knowledge made their 
living. In the professions we have the electrician, en- 
gineer, lawyer, minister, musician, physician and others. 
In the office force of the commercial and industrial 
lines we have the bookkeepers, clerks, draughtsmen, 
financiers, foremen, managers and stenographers. In the 
workshop we have the blacksmith, boiler maker, car- 
penter, machinist, moulder, pattern maker, puddlers 
and rollers, and so on to the common laborer. Outside 
the workshops comes the agent, farmer, mason, miner, 
painter, plumber, sailor, street car men, and many 
others. How many are there in all these occupations 
who could show they made their living independently of 
other's origination, or even made the slightest improve- 
ment upon them. In the case of the carpenter, for ex- 
ample, we find him handling chisels, squares, augers, as 
he was taught to do by imitating others' practices. He 
may step a little higher and be able to plan, and lay out 
work for others to do, but in this the same as the lower 
skilled part of the trade, many men merely follow others' 
practices, and at the end of life it cannot be shown 
wherein the worker did a single thing that was not known 
or practiced by others before he did it. Some may say, 
"he was a good workman," and ask if one cannot excel in 
imitative work, and merit credit as those doing original 
work. The well doing of any work is creditable and in 
many lines highly so. The one that strives to excel in 
quality or quantity is advancing himself to a higher 
plane of manhood, and should receive every encourage- 
ment to press forward. However, in encouraging such 
qualities, we should not lose sight of those entitled to the 
greatest support and praise, the originator. To him 
civilization owes more than is credited. Everything 
that we have that is in advance of the savage, giving us 
better means of transportation by land and sea, better 



78 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

houses and furnished homes, better clothes, food and edu- 
cation ; better laws and society, better books and papers 
and better protection for the weak against the strong, 
is due to the exercise of the spirit of originality in man. 

A New York City paper has asked the question, "Are 
we men or monkeys ? " If the editor could be transferred 
to the grave responsibilities of managing some new large 
industrial manufacturing concern he would be led more 
to ask, if many were not a lot of incompetents, often un- 
able to even compete with monkeys in imitation. "While 
we give credit and have great respect for the originator 
it is not to be inferred that we have none for the imitator. 
It is the one that has never done anything other than 
imitate, but carries himself as though he originated all 
things that exist, for whom we have little respect. 

The vanity of some so narrows their vision and per- 
ceptive powers as to make it impossible for them to con- 
ceive what they owe to others for their comforts and 
existence. The man who endeavors to originate is broad- 
ened in soul and narrowed in vanity. He is often 
brought to feel that all we have above the savage in com- 
forts and protection is due mostly to others' achievements, 
in creating or improving the new ; and the little he may 
accomplish in origination is insignificant compared to 
the whole that exists as the results of others ' originality. 

In educating the young, they should be led to under- 
stand the distinction between originality and imitation, 
and their obligation to all those who have added their 
mite towards creating the new or improving the old. 
They should also be taught to remember that it has taken 
many centuries to bring civilization to its present ad- 
vancement, and that much tardiness was largely due to 
the great number of people who have been satisfied to be 
merely imitators or too indolent to achieve that which 
they might in helping to advance civilization. While 
much has been done through originality to benefit men, 
much more remains to be done and while it is creditable 
to excel in old lines, we should above all else respect 
those who originated the new. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Characteristics Demanded in Vocations and Value of 
Studying Them 

A manager, superintendent or foreman when desiring 
to engage the services of men, cannot stand on a street 
corner and take every man in the order of their coming, 
simply because they are men and desire a position. For 
some positions an overseer might observe several hundred 
people pass and not see one that appeared to be the 
man he wanted. Few aside from managers or overseers 
give any thought to the tasks that confront those who 
have to select employees. 

Almost every vocation demands certain general char- 
acteristics which will differ widely from others. Con- 
trast in this is so radical in many lines that a thoughtful 
observer cannot but be deeply impressed with the distinc- 
tion exhibited. This is so great in many eases that one 
might well wonder whether the distinction is not due 
to a difference in race. 

Ability with refinement and ability without polish are 
two features which give great prominence to the distinc- 
tion between the general qualifications required in ability 
among clerical and manual workers. 

In the store is found demands for competent persons, 
who should be neat and clean, also of pleasing address 
and courteous ; while in the workshop there may be more 
points demanded of able workers who can more often be 
dirty and uncouth and still meet all the requirements of 
their vocation. Many are reared in such refinement that 
they cannot condescend to become begrimed by labor 
and the employer wishing steady workers has this factor 
to often consider as well as points in ability. Were 
there a greater knowledge of the high ability demanded 
by many industrial vocations there would be much 
less disrespect for their un cleanliness and thereby cause 
many of intelligence to be employed at a more remunera- 
tive labor than they now are. 



80 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

It is an interesting and instructive study to observe the 
different general characteristics which various vocations 
demand. The advancement of youth from one stage to 
another is so gradual and matter-of-fact proceeding that 
all the different talents demanded in the intricate work- 
ings of commercial and industrial pursuits, appear to 
him as tho they always existed and took care of them- 
selves. 

Tutors have often taken pupils to visit commercial or 
industrial concerns to explain the mode of conducting 
business or manufacture; but it is a question if any of 
them up to this writing ever called attention to the dif- 
ferent general characteristics of the employes engaged 
in the various pursuits. The difference to be observed is 
very pronounced and could prove very valuable to par- 
ents, guardians or tutors who had it in their power to 
direct or bring up minors in the way they should go, 
aside from the information it could afford adults seeking 
situations. A very important factor in this connection 
to be kept in mind is the fact that the various general 
characteristics to be observed in different pursuits were 
not selected by chance or in any way an experiment. 
Long practice and keen judgment of man's needs and 
human ability have decided the general characteristics 
necessary to the successful manipulation of the various 
pursuits of civilization. 

There are a few vocations demanding such radical 
characteristics from others that almost any adult can 
detect them in men. One looks like an actor, an agent, 
a business man, a clerk, a farmer, a laborer, a lawyer, a 
mechanic, a minister, a musician or a sport, are opinions 
often tendered in conjecturing the vocations of unknown 
people. When a person shows the general characteristics 
demanded by any vocation it is as a rule a safe prediction 
that if he can be successful in any labor he would be in 
the one that common opinion of appearance predicts him 
fitted for. It is said "if they are successful, ' ' for the 
reason that while one may look the general character- 
istics demanded, he may be lacking in one or more of the 



CHARACTERISTICS IN VOCATIONS 83 

innate qualities necessary to excellence. It is one thing to 
judge correctly the general characteristics necessary to 
fit one for any certain vocation and another to know of 
all the innate qualities that it may demand, as a lack 
of one quality may often prevent a person obtaining 
competency in the vocations for which nature fitted him. 

The demand for different characteristics in workers, 
is about as great as there are demands for different pur- 
suits. This could be well displayed by having a proces- 
sion of representative workers, of both sexes, from com- 
mercial and industrial pursuits take place every year or 
so in the towns and cities on what might be termed voca- 
tion day. Such an array of workers would afford an ex- 
cellent opportunity for the masses to observe the general 
characteristics demanded and assist in preventing much 
useless expenditure of time in training youths for pur- 
suits for which they have not even the possession of the 
general characteristics required, let alone all the special 
innate qualities. 

Whatever means may be employed to study the gen- 
eral characteristics necessary to any vocation, should 
not be neglected. Few factors are of greater value in 
aiding any to obtain competency, than avoiding the voca- 
tion one is unfitted for. Man is great in his might and 
stands the master over all creation, but incapacitated 
by misplacing his capabilities he becomes of little use 
to himself or to those who would have prized him highly 
had he not erred in judging the general and innate char- 
acteristics demanded by the vocation in which he en- 
listed his services. 



CHAPTER IX 

Iniquity of "Wasting Energy and Time in the Spring 

of Life 

Every beat of one's heart in forcing blood through 
the arteries, is as a stroke of a pump in lifting water. 
The pump may run without raising water, as the heart 
may labor without its force being used in physical or 
mental effort, but such wasted energy only decreases its 
durability as the exertion of the mind and body in use- 
less effort can tire the heart. 

Every thought or movement of the body requires force 
from the heart. One can often exact more force from 
the heart for play or sport than by hard mental or 
physical labor and it matters little what demands are 
made upon the heart to work the mind or body, it is all 
lost energy when not productive of good results. The 
child uses heart force in play, but because it is play it 
does not necessarily imply that such energy is lost. Few 
actions require more energy than a good hearty laugh, 
yet few exertions are more beneficial to man. 

One great error many make, lies in not utilizing their 
energy to the best advantage; they often waste more 
strength in laboring to prevent working or to "kill time" 
than to do that for which they are paid or which would 
be the most beneficial in results to them. Wasting energy 
is as a fire in creating a loss. Either are destroyers of 
things which no power can replace and when once gone 
are gone forever. Whatever wastes energy, squanders 
time, which is life, and time cannot turn back in its 
flight to regain that which is lost. 

Many in laboring act like the balky horse, which uses 
more energy to prevent going forward than would be 
required in doing what is demanded. If, as an example, 
some laborers are set to work wheeling sand, they will 
place the barrow several feet from them and after many 
steps to reach it, will then occasionally pat the sand in 



INIQUITY OF WASTING ENERGY 85 

the barrow as if the extra steps and patting with the 
shovel were a necessity in filling the barrows. They 
often nse up as much energy to fill one barrow as is 
needed for two. 

Another example of hundreds that could be cited; a 
common laborer was started to work shoveling out a 
small car of coal. It had taken another man that worked 
easily, but steadily, 10 hours to shovel out a similar car. 
The second man, thinking no one was watching him, had 
at the end of 10 hours shoveled out a little over one half 
of a car of coal. In watching the man work, it was 
observed that he would, upon taking a smaller shovel 
full of coal, walk quite an unnecessary number of steps 
before tossing it from the car and then in walking back 
would twist and turn, until one would think his neck 
would come off, and at the same time be fooling with his 
shovel, and thereby use in all more energy than if he had 
spent his efforts in the actual work of shoveling the coal. 

An intelligent observer at the above waste of energy 
would, in many cases, be at a loss to decide whether it 
were due to ignorance or chicanery. It must be one or 
the other. A low grade of intelligence may pardon the 
first, but it must be very low to prevent the workers 
observing the waste being incurred. In considering the 
thought carefully one would be led to charge the waste to 
chicanery more than ignorance and that it comes from 
inbred prejudice born of hatred for capital or the spirit 
of indolence, causing many to act as if a laborer were 
more worthy of his hire, in proportion to the little 
equivalent he renders for his wages. Wherever one may 
go he can find some studying or working harder to evade 
commendable results than to achieve them, and the more 
time such can * ' kill ' ' the smarter they esteem themselves. 
Such endeavors never aided any one to obtain efficiency ; 
it only kept them down in the mire of poverty or on a 
level with incompetents who were much of their time 
complaining about capital and the lack of opportunities. 

A very important factor that many have to learn is 
that there is a short and a long way of doing anything 



86 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

that involves labor, and that it generally requires brain 
energy to study out the long way as the short one. 
People can, of course, struggle along by using little or 
no brains, but if they use mental force at all, they 
should appropriate it to the best interests of all con- 
cerned, and part of the "all" is the individual who must 
do the work. Any who have no interest but that involved 
in the blowing of the whistle and pay-days are not 
worthy of their hire ; if all labor were of the same spirit, 
the cost of production would be so great as to cut the 
masses out of very many luxuries which they now enjoy. 

Bosses are held in their position of authority for the 
purpose of designating and arranging work, also assum- 
ing the responsibility of seeing that it is done properly 
and profitably. There are but two courses for business 
to take, one is upward the other downward; it cannot 
continue in the middle course. If a firm cannot make 
money it must soon stop doing business. 

It is to the credit of civilization that there are those 
that desire to use their energy to good advantage and it 
is by the leadership or help of such that capital is en- 
couraged to invest in industrial and commercial pursuits, 
without which there would be little if any employment 
for labor. The foundation of government, and in fact 
all civilization, consists chiefly in the factor of the indi- 
vidual operative's being worthy of his hire. Those who 
study more to avoid work rather than to do it, are drones, 
whose existence is a detriment to mankind ; and had such 
their just dues they would be treated as they would were 
they on board a foundering ship, shirking their duty at 
the pumps. Civilization at its best is but a ship that is 
constantly tossing on life's sea, the waves of which would 
sweep it to rocky shores were it not for the energy that 
seeks to pull it windward, instead of drifting with the 
tides of chicanery, loiterism or indifference. 

There is no excuse operatives can give which will 
license them to use energy to evade work when it is quite 
as easy to do their labor. We say "quite as easy" 
because of a desire to give them the most credit possible 



INIQUITY OF WASTING ENERGY 87 

that may be due any special existing conditions. Grant- 
ing that a duty requires a little more energy to perform 
than evade, even then is not man bound by the ties of 
obligation that insure him protection and a living, to 
give something in return to his fellows for what he re- 
ceived from them ? ' ' The world owes me a living, ' ' should 
never be accepted by those who study the fundamental 
principles which underlie the maintenance of civilization. 
It is a maxim, that drones may think, pardons lack of 
energy and ambition in man, but no one seeking the 
manhood creditable to labor will ever use it as a prop 
to support chicanery or indolence. 

To be fair to our race and the laws that protect us, 
we should avoid the waste of energy by studying and 
laboring, not to do one thing when all obligations demand 
the opposite. 

Let us be worthy the man that evolution has wrought 
by studying to use energy profitably, and the conscious- 
ness of right doing will make one competent to shame- 
face those who shun the labor and responsibility of being 

worthy of their hire by the iniquity of "killing" time. 
# # * 

The life of man is so short and time so valuable that 
vigilance and careful preparation for service must be 
exercised by any who desire to get the most out of it. 
The most precious days of life are those of youth, when 
the young are being fitted for adult laborers and at this 
period every care should be taken to guard against 
wasting time and energy. The first step in avoiding 
waste is to obtain knowledge, if possible, of a youth's 
aptitude, qualifications and the pursuits demanding ap- 
plicants. This should be done, if possible, before it is 
time for minors to enter high school, as at this stage 
their education should be so directed as to include that 
most essential to aid them in the mastery of the vocation 
for which they are best fitted and which offers a fair op- 
portunity to engage their services. If the calling is such 
as not to require the minors to enter a high school, it will 
be unwise and often unjust to send them there. Many 



88 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

students' early years are lost in useless studies. Examples 
of this are found on every hand by adults possessing 
knowledge they cannot use and in a few years will have 
largely forgotten. Obtaining knowledge is good for 
mental training, but where it cannot be used to enable 
one to master some special vocation it is a costly attain- 
ment and often a heavy burden. 

There are few vocations but that can employ almost all 
one's spare time in pursuing its technical factors and 
keeping well informed about its progress, if one wishes 
to be at the head or with the leaders. Learning one thing 
well and a little of others is preferable in every way to 
trying to be a "Jack of all trades and master of none." 

The duty of parents in the education of their children 
is very sacred, and to train judiciously is their greatest 
obligation. Any error in directing a youth's course 
may be its ruin. In all communities can be found parents 
sending youths to study for the professions of doctors, 
lawyers, ministers, musicians and the like, when they 
have no more ability to succeed in these vocations than 
an invalid has to successfully combat a trained prize 
fighter. Errors just cited come largely from a desire 
to have children follow professions where they can wear 
fine clothes and have titles instead of trades which are 
looked upon by many as menial occupations. If we have 
the respect for trades or industrial vocations that we 
solicit, it would be the means of annulling a great deal 
of the false and injurious pride that often causes so 
great a waste of valuable time. The more the intelligent 
masses can come to incite respect for any labor that 
begets an honest living, the less criminal loss of time and 
wrecking of lives will be experienced. 

The liberties and privileges of any civilized country 
were not intended to misguide ambitious youths and lead 
them to waste time studying for professional vocations, 
when they are best qualified for the unprofessional. The 
streets of cities, towns and villages are trodden daily 
by many professionals, searching for positions or succor 
that their meager salaries will not furnish and who 



INIQUITY OF WASTING ENERGY 89 

might have never known the pangs of poverty had they 
been trained for some unprofessional career in the 
learning period of their lives. 

The error in causing youths to give up the most valu- 
able years of their lives trying to secure a start in voca- 
tions which they are wholly unsuited for is criminal. 
Ill success in mastering prescribed pursuits has often 
led persons of good intent to commit crimes that cost 
them all hopes of future happiness or life. 

In connection with the error of the injudicious direc- 
tions of youths, we have the crime of wasting time 
through self indulgence and loitering in youth. "All 
work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" was not in- 
tended to mean that Jack should injure his health in 
efforts to avoid work, like the one who has not sufficient 
days in a week for pleasure seeking or for the practice 
of indolence. It is proper that youth should enjoy the 
spring of life in a moderate way, but there is a line to be 
drawn in this, as in all other affairs of life. Those who 
get the most enjoyment out of any pleasure are they 
who make it a rarity or a treat. Any pleasure loses its 
charm by too frequent repetition. The one that witnesses 
the same play twice does not enjoy the second presenta- 
tion as the first. The one that goes driving but a few 
times a year enjoys the outing much more than the one 
who has a carriage at his command every day. Many 
illustrations could be given to demonstrate the fact that 
frequent repetition of amusements or pleasures does 
not possess that which should cause a youth to sacrifice 
his future happiness. 

The one that has nothing but amusements and loung- 
ing with which to occupy spare time is to be pitied. This 
could not be better sustained than by the following 
profitable experience of a busy body, who tried pleasure 
seeking and lounging for a short period but found it to 
tender a miserable existence compared to having interest 
in self improvement. This person always had some 
studies or labor set aside for his spare hours after com- 
pleting his days work. He would occasionally for mod- 



90 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

erate recreation or amusements take a night off for a 
theatre, carriage drive or for dancing. This temperate 
mode of living he always followed with the exception 
of a short period when he became associated with a 
company of young men, who never had anything to do 
but seek amusements or loaf on the streets. He found 
this mode of passing time pleasant enough, so long as 
he could be kept moving in a whirl of amusement; but 
there came hours, and many of them, when such could 
not be found, and there being nothing for him to do 
but sit idly about, stare out of windows, or stand on 
street corners, he soon became most miserable. After 
three months of this experience, he broke away from his 
companions with a resolution to never again allow him- 
self to be without some studies or labor, that he could 
take up at any spare time, with which to occupy his 
mind. His experience taught him that those who will 
aim to always have near, some profitable labor for the 
mind and hand, need not care whether it rains or shines, 
as they can be happy and contented in all kinds of 
weather, time or place, when free of adversity. 

The confirmed pleasure seeker or loiterer can never, 
under any circumstances, be as happy and contented a 
person as a busy student or worker, and such are most 
likely, if not wealthy at the start, to never become a 
bank depositor and very liable to have an ending in pov- 
erty that often makes the wasting of time lead to crime. 

One-half or over of our Caucasian population waste 
more than a third of their time in pleasure seeking or 
idleness, which could be profitably employed in the 
making of better men and women of themselves. 

Habit of wasting time, fostered in youth, is rarely if 
ever eradicated. It is generally best not to allow youths 
to get in the habit of having long or frequent loitering 
spells, or vacations, as such is very liable to prevent their 
making good workers. Many youths are spoiled by 
parents allowing them to idle away their time during 
vacations. To prevent this one instance is recalled of a 
parent who made a practice of allowing his sons during 



INIQUITY OF WASTING ENERGY 93 

school-days two weeks' vacation in the summer; the re- 
mainder of the time was spent in an office or workshop 
gaining practical experience. These young men are 
now known as steady, industrious workers and occupy 
responsible positions, which could not have been gained 
had they not carried the practical along with the tech- 
nical during their minor years. 

If we would be industrious and profit most by the 
privilege of our birthright, then we must learn when 
young to utilize time to a profitable advantage. The 
young loiterer too often makes the old tramp and his 
affliction and suffering is due to the criminality of wast- 
ing time. Nothing abuses nature 's demands for utlizing 
time in their way like man. Because man is monarch 
of all he surveys is no reason for using his kingship 
and freedom as a license to idle away time, especially 
when young, that he should use to qualify himself for 
labors which nature fitted him for. 

Time is ever precious and none can afford to squander 
its fleeting moments by injudicious direction of talents 
or constant frivolity. Any who desire to avoid the pen- 
alties which this criminality inflicts must use every 
moment as a sacred possession, to divide the time for 
labor, pleasure and rest in a manner to secure and main- 
tain the best thrift and health. 
# # # 

Life at its best is very short and no being takes so 
little out of it for the labor expended in its enjoyment in 
their way as does civilized man. While it is true that 
civilization demands great preparation and training in 
order to fit one for life, we should ever bear in mind 
that "the morning hours are golden." There is no 
maxim that depicts more the importance of attaining 
competency early in life than that heard in almost every 
workshop, ? ' One hour in the morning is worth two in the 
afternoon.' ' It is not that civilized man cannot com- 
prehend the truth of the maxim just cited, but more in 
the construction put upon it is where the evil lies. Too 
many accept the morning hours of life as being those 



94 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

best for sport and pleasure and fail entirely in compre- 
hending the true purpose of civilized life ; some often ex- 
cuse their practice by the maxim "enjoy life while 
young for when old you cannot." This is a sentiment 
which is not true in its application to the problem of 
how best to enjoy life and provide for old age. 

One of the weaknesses of human nature is to make the 
best of passing hours, giving no heed for the morrow. 
Storing up for "a rainy day" is something many do not 
think worthy of any thought or effort. It is all well to 
enjoy life while young, providing it does not injure the 
chance of being independent and living comfortable in 
after years. Any ignoring their future independence 
and comforts act with about the same sense that a 
farmer would, who might neglect sowing and planting in 
the spring time, with the expectation of getting a living 
by betting on others' horses. He might succeed in his 
ventures but the chances are more that he will not. 

There is but one period of youth and the risk is too 
great for any not to utilize its strength and vigor to 
prepare for the needs and comforts of the summer and 
fall of life. The one that disregards the two seasons just 
mentioned lives as though the spring were the end of all. 
Those who have passed through the spring and sum- 
mer of their existence can testify that while the spring- 
time is enchanting and beautiful, the summer and fall 
of life have also many charms to fascinate one. 

The spring of life finds others training and caring for 
us. If we have good health, all is buoyant and free from 
responsibility and is the ideal of a happy life. However, 
there is an innate desire among the young for time to fly, 
and an eagerness for the approach of independence, or 
a time when one will be free to follow more his own de- 
sires. While the days of youth are generally those of 
joy, especially in the anticipation of greater pleasures, 
and affords a privilege to be independent of responsi- 
bilities and charity, still for all this the natural desire for 
the coming of maturity is one all minors rightly possess, 
for it really does bring them to the best time of life, as 



INIQUITY OF WASTING ENERGY 95 

all who have made themselves competent to fully enjoy 
it can testify. 

If with a minor's natural desire to reach maturity 
there could also be implanted a purpose to attain the 
competency necessary to independence, lifting him 
above others ' charity and good offices, it would be one 
of the greatest uplifts which could be given to man. 

The summer of man 's life, like the full blown rose, the 
expanded foliage of twigs and leaves and the swaying 
verdure of fields, stand forth with majestic beauty and 
power, in contrast to the buds and drooping leaves of the 
spring and fall of nature's life. 

Wherever one may turn is seen evidence of the wisdom 
of preparing for the summer of life, before the spring 
glides by, if he has any desire to enjoy the best that 
life has in store for him. 

If it is true that fortune knocks but once at the door, 
there is no more opportune time for it to be effective 
than in youth, when it should awaken one to the neces- 
sity of preparing as early as possible for the attainment 
of competency. 

Those who can become skilled in any vocation, to 
fairly master it before they are twenty-five years of age, 
have achieved a start that will repay them well for the 
toil and self denial of many young years of pleasure. 
Living until nearly gray before one can become skilled 
and independent in any vocation, is a great loss of time 
and comforts of life. 

There are few afflictions more piercing to sensibilities 
of adults than those which come from being incompetent. 
If such came in youth there would be time to rise above 
them, but having to withstand humiliations when the 
sting of not being the complete man or woman nature 
fitted them to be is realized, are penalties which all who 
have not labored to become competent early in life must 
endure, and warns men to heed its mandates before it is 
too late. 

If there be a hell on earth it is to be aged and infirm 
with no home, penniless and at the mercy of relatives or 



96 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

the charity of a cold world. By becoming competent 
early in life and saving, there need be little poverty for 
the aged. Any struggle in youth will be more than well 
repaid if it but serve to make comfortable and inde- 
pendent the life of old age. 



CHAPTER X 

Opportunities for and Difficulties Preventing Attainment 
of Competency 

The lack of efficiency is not due so much to a minor's 
experience with difficulties or failures in striving to gain 
skill as it is the lack of ability and effort to attain it. 
Nevertheless, there are many difficulties which will con- 
front those who labor to advance themselves. None ever 
attained competency by merely wishing it and then 
sitting down to wait its inception. Competency can only 
be attained by hard work, assuming responsibilities and 
making many self-denials. There may be a hundred and 
one excuses made for the lack of opportunities, or the 
inability of many to attain competency, but when all are 
weighed, we find that men's tendency to harbor ease and 
pleasure is more often the underlying cause of their ill 
success. Those who in an ordinary position do more than 
is expected of them and have fitted themselves for higher 
positions, rarely need to complain about the lack of op- 
portunities, like those who have waited for their develop- 
ment before starting to advance themselves. 

There are few, if any, but what have at one or more 
times in their life, seen some selected from their class for 
promotion to a position which was an advancement that 
they could have been selected for, had they possessed but 
one point in ability ahead of the one chosen. There are 
changes continually occurring in most every concern 
whereby some one must be selected to step up to a higher 
or better position than they hold. No manager, boss 
or other employee can predict the moment when accident, 
sickness, death or other changes may take place that will 
open an opportunity for some one to be elevated. The 
ambitious and talented must fit themselves for promotion 
and having done this there is no telling when the hour 
will come when some one will be glad to solicit their ser- 
vices. A person may have all the talents for filling 



98 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

higher positions than they hold, but if they have not done 
something to fit themselves for higher work than they 
have done their opportunities for advancement are much 
less than they would be otherwise. 

In order to train one 's self to be competent there must 
of necessity be opportunities afforded to gain experience 
and skill. To affirm, as some believe, that there are no 
opportunities, will not stand investigation by competent 
judges. If seekers for opportunities will but keep in 
mind the fact that "the boys and girls of to-day must be 
the men and women of tomorrow,' ' they will perceive 
that to fill the places of the old requires the training and 
moving up of the new. The passing of any sixty years 
witnesses the great need of a new generation of efficient 
workers and had none been trained during the existence 
of the old, there would be none to take up the work of 
the new. We always find industry, commerce and art be- 
ing conducted by trained hands, the best that can be pro- 
cured, the same as if none had ever died, demonstrating 
the fact that there must be opportunities for minors of 
to-day as existed for those in the past. 

The practice of many to neglect present and future 
opportunities because of ability to secure a little better 
wage rate at the start in doing menial work, or that re- 
quiring little experience or skill, is greatly responsible 
for the lack of fitness of many to embrace opportunities, 
or to give an equivalent for high wages. The self-denials 
generally necessary for apprentices to attain good skill 
is looked upon by many as too difficult. Too many would 
rather accept common laborer's or clerk's wages for a 
start, with nothing better in sight, than undertaking to 
get along on apprentice's wages, let the prospects for ob- 
taining higher wages later on be ever so promising. The 
difficulty of existing on apprentice's wages may debar 
some from advancing to attain skill. However, this plea 
may pass for a few, but for the majority such excuses 
should have little weight if they will strive to overcome 
them by following suggestions at close of this chapter. 

Every age will witness difficulties peculiar to its time, 



OPPORTUNITIES AND DIFFICULTIES 99 

and offer opportunities which did not exist before. 
Specializing in manufacture in the 20th century has re- 
sulted in debarring many from having the opportunities 
to become the all-around masters of their vocations, 
whether general or a specialty business, that existed 
twenty or more years before the close of the 19th century. 

There is not so much to encourage the ambitious to 
love their vocations when they are kept at one single 
operation day after day, like, for instance, feeding a 
nail press, tapping nuts, making button holes or running 
an elevator, and many other single act operations which 
could be mentioned in specialty work. Any vocation 
which confines an ambitious person to one act operation 
is apt to rob some such men or women of that enthu- 
siasm necessary to make them love their work. "Without 
one is deeply interested in his vocation, there is little 
incentive to make him labor to attain its highest skill. 

There are numerous vocations requiring but one 
operation which involve much responsibility and care 
the same as in general work, and constant practice in 
any one particular operation should make a person very 
perfect in the work in which he is engaged. The satisfac- 
tion of attaining perfection in doing one single operation 
is sufficient to inspire many with enthusiasm or love 
for their work, nevertheless such, as a rule, greatly 
prevents attainment of the experience that can broaden 
one's skill. As an example, a blacksmith can by con- 
stant practice become very proficient in making a special 
article, but let such be requested to turn to a general 
line of work, having had no other experience, and he 
would be little better than a beginner. Such a one has 
abridged a demand for his services and runs a greater 
chance of being out of employment, should he tire of 
his one act operation, or his vocation be annulled, much 
more than the broadly experienced or all around artisan. 

Specializing in industrial and commercial pursuits, 
which increases the demand for single act experienced 
operators, has not and never will annul or greatly de- 
crease the demand for intelligence and broadly skilled 



ioo THE COMPETENT LIFE 

persons. Specializing will make it much harder for 
many to secure opportunities to advance themselves, 
but with the determination to succeed which character- 
izes all thrifty and enterprising people, it will take more 
than ordinary conditions to keep down any who have 
the ability and purpose, and for such there are for the 
present, at least, more positions than there are those who 
can properly fill them. It may take some shifting from 
one position to another before an aspirant to higher rank 
can find the opportunity he seeks, nevertheless, a deter- 
mination to succeed will, as a rule, win out. 

Remove the antipathy for self denials and hard work, 
also for the responsibilities that harass and worry, and 
the seeming lack of opportunities to attain competency in 
general or specialty work will disappear so rapidly that 
it can only be those of little intelligence or energy who 
could have any great chance to accuse their times of offer- 
ing no opportunities for the true advancement of labor. 



There was a time when, to secure an opportunity to 
learn a vocation, the parent or guardian of a youth had 
to generally pay for the privilege, instead of the appren- 
tices receiving wages as they do at the present day. 
This custom was beneficial so far as it placed more value 
on the privilege of learning than upon wages and those 
who were fortunate enough to obtain such an oppor- 
tunity prized it highly. It has always been and will no 
doubt be so to the end of all time, that man will prize 
more highly that which costs him time or money for 
learning than that which does not. The principle is 
such that when reversed few know where to draw the 
line. In the struggles of labor to improve its condi- 
tion, it was thought better justice to be paid for learning 
than to pay others for the opportunity. Such at least is 
at present a necessity in order to afford the poor boy a 
chance; but on account of some abusing this condi- 
tion, the question is often debatable and some cases would 
serve to prove that being paid for learning has prevented 



OPPORTUNITIES AND DIFFICULTIES 101 

many from becoming competent workers or masters of 
their vocations. 

Many have lost all opportunities for life by their being 
able to obtain 50 cents to $1 more per day at some voca- 
tion when a minor, than was possible if bound down to 
regular apprentice's wages. Failures of so many youths 
to realize what is best for them in the end would seem to 
affirm that it would be a blessing to man if minors were 
unable to receive any higher wages at any labor than 
is common to compensate the hire of apprentices to thor- 
oughly learn any vocation that can render them good 
men's wages in maturity. 

Opening the gate to permit demands for pay in learn- 
ing to be skilled has placed a premium on ability to attain 
the highest wages possible for doing so. This affects 
some in such a way that the amount to be received while 
learning is of greater importance, in their estimation, 
than the amount that can be learned. 

Few are sufficiently experienced to realize that it gen- 
erally costs employers much money to teach apprentices. 
Old heads may realize this, but the young that are the 
direct beneficiaries seldom comprehend it. This results 
in two evils : the first is, that by the nature of the rate 
of wages demanded for learning, employers are often 
compelled to get apprentices proficient in one single 
operation as soon as possible and keep them at it as long 
as they can in order to make them a paying venture; 
the second evil lies in the apprentice who often sees him- 
self doing nearly if not as much work in his one special 
operation as some old hands, thereby getting so dissatis- 
fied that he makes demands for more pay. This often 
results in the apprentice looking for another position, 
which they get, and many keep going through this same 
experience until looking for jobs often takes up as much 
time as working at them. 

When once an apprentice has left two or three posi- 
tions to look for others, he is apt to so over-stay his mar- 
ket as to prevent his mastering any vocation. There 
would not be the great dissatisfaction over wages re- 



102 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

ceived in the above ease if the beginners understood that 
while they may accomplish as much in one certain thing 
as old experienced hands, it costs more to teach them 
where one is working by the day, than by the piece, and 
the chances are that, in piece or day work, the older ex- 
perienced hands are far less liable to make blunders, 
which always cost the firm much for inferior work, re- 
pairs, or for new machinery. 

There are cases where a firm may desire many of its 
trained hands to do several different kinds of work so 
that when some are off for loafing, sickness, injuries, or 
business, that it can turn to others in order to keep the 
plant or some special department going. In some estab- 
lishments the absence of one employee that could not 
be replaced would prevent the running of its work. The 
carefulness to avoid blunders and the ability to success- 
fully fill various positions causes the old hands to be 
much more valuable than the new, even in specialty 
work. 

Not only do many beginners demand all the wages they 
think possible to obtain, but a custom among youths, 
wishing to ape the independent, competent person before 
they are adults, builds up such a false pride in many 
that they often feel it beneath them to be under parental 
or employers' subjection, and some grow to the size of 
a man on such stilts that they can never come down to the 
position a beginner must occupy in order to succeed. The 
conceit and assumption of many youths can stand above 
all other agencies in being detrimental to their attain- 
ment of competency. Again many poor children living in 
the atmosphere of wealth, with its school and street asso- 
ciations, readily imbibe the ideas and spirit of their seem- 
ingly independent companions and are often encouraged 
to appear like them by indiscreet parents, believing that 
to acquire the appearance and manners of the wealthy 
will aid their children to secure good positions, all the 
while forgetting that employers do not engage persons 
for their assumption but for what they are able to do. 

There is no country comparable to America where the 



OPPORTUNITIES AND DIFFICULTIES 103 

influence which should be the most favorable to the mak- 
ing of efficient workers proves so opposite in results. 
Instead of the opportunities and associations of wealth 
being beneficial to the majority of youths, it has proved 
a detriment. This experience should prove a lesson to 
other countries as well as our own. 

Many parents and guardians devote much time in 
striving to guard youths from temptation of immoral 
practices, but appear very ignorant of those conditions 
which ensnare the youths and hold them down to incom- 
petency. If those of long experience in life are unaware 
of, or unable to guide youths clear of the pitfalls of in- 
competency, it is hardly just to expect youths to do so 
themselves. It would seem that in many cases young 
people have had to depend upon their own resources 
for knowledge of the influences which restrain their 
reaching the goal of competency. Whatever the case 
may be, parents, as well as the youths themselves, should 
welcome any agency that might assist them to avoid the 
influences which direct the young from the paths that 
lead to mastery in the vocations for which they are fitted. 

One great encouragement for youths to attain com- 
petency is to think of the time required in learning any 
commercial or industrial pursuits; it is a business or 
mathematical proposition which school boys or girls 
should be able to solve for themselves. In starting to 
figure out any such problems one has first to estimate 
their probable length of life and which can be placed for 
the average person at forty years of active labor; three 
to four years of which time is given to tutors and the 
balance to further self-development. The first year may 
bring but $.60 a day, the second $1.00, the third $1.25 
and the fourth $1.50. Allowing Sundays and ten holi- 
days gives 293 working days a year and leaves an average 
of $336.88 per year, or a total of $1,327.55 for the four 
years, should it require so many to obtain the start 
necessary to insure one's becoming an efficient worker. 
The smallness of the first and second years wages is what 
prevents many youths from undertaking the task of 



io 4 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

learning to be skilled, but if such will continue the above 
mathematical schedule to find how much more they can 
have in the end, by sacrificing some wages at the start, 
they will then observe why they should make an effort 
and wherein the question is chiefly a business proposition. 
In continuing the affairs of the first four years, the next 
to be added is the fifth. This should bring from two to 
four dollars per day and ever after it may run from 
$2.50 to $5.00 or over ; but taking an average of $3.00 per 
day for the balance of forty years, allowing four years 
for learning, there is to the credit of the skilled worker 
$32,444.00 as against $17,980.50 for the unskilled, a dif- 
ference of $14,463.50 in favor of the one that sacrificed a 
few years at the beginning in learning to be skillful. 

Where one is not skilled he may be out of employment 
and spend so much time looking for work as to cut down 
the $17,980.50 several thousand dollars, as the compe- 
tent or skilled persons are generally in such demand that 
they need lose little time on account of looking for 
work. It may be said that if all were skilled or efficient 
workers there would be times when they could not find 
employment. This is true in a measure ; nevertheless, the 
more competents there are, the greater the needs of men 
and the cheaper and better the products of labor and 
hence the more business to create and continue pros- 
perity, labor's best friend. 

There are chances that the unskilled person may 
drift into some occupation that will net him more than 
if he were skilled. This is likely in some instances, but 
such opportunities are so rare it is like a lottery, and for 
any to trust the welfare of their whole future life to a 
game of chance is very unwise. When it comes to chances 
for something better than $3.00 per day the skilled 
person has many more opportunities for greater incomes 
than the unskilled. This is shown by the biographies of 
many men at the head of our steel companies, railways 
and many other enterprises in the United States and the 
same is to be said of many self-made women. 

All youths should have a chance in life and the popular 



OPPORTUNITIES AND DIFFICULTIES 107 

sentiment should be in favor of it, but accompanying the 
opportunity should be a determination on the part of 
the young to let no wage compensation or any other con- 
tention sway them from sticking to that which they are 
fitted for, until they have become so skilled in all pos- 
sible branches of their calling that they can rank with 
the best in ability to tender an equivalent for the highest 
salary or wages given. 

To assist in giving the youth a chance we suggest the 
inauguration of institutions or agencies, in connection 
with banks, which would loan funds, secured by collateral 
or bondsman, to aid youths in supporting themselves 
while serving an apprenticeship. A loan for such a pur- 
pose need not, in the majority of cases, exceed $250.00, 
including the interest. This could be used to help sup- 
port the beginner the first one or two years, and the in- 
creases of wages for the third or fourth, or, if need be, 
the fifth, could be drawn upon to pay the loan, were 
there no other means provided. 

Another factor that would be of great benefit to labor 
is the inauguration of information and employment bur- 
eaus. There are no means available to-day whereby any 
one can obtain reliable information as to what profession, 
trades or other pursuits are over crowded or stand in 
greatest need of workers. Every state should have such 
a bureau, supported by taxes or otherwise, whereby any 
of its citizens could learn of employers' needs of labor. 
Not only should every state know of its own needs in this 
line, but all could inform each other of any extra demand 
they could not themselves supply. This would permit 
those who could not find employment in one state an op- 
portunity to secure it in another. Should any unem- 
ployed person not have the means of transportation 
to another place, tickets could often be provided for by 
the employer needing the help. This plan should, in 
connection with the suggested Apprenticeship Loan 
Agency, permit a betterment in labor that few future 
advancements in its interest could excel. 



CHAPTER XI 

Qualities Necessary to Achieve Success in Various 
Pursuits 

Much of the literature of the past leads many readers 
to believe that being honest, industrious and saving 
money would obtain success in life. While these 
virtues are all necessary and commendable in man, it 
requires the addition of other qualities to make most 
people successful. What these are depends upon the 
character of the vocation to be followed. There are 
few pursuits which do not call for different special 
qualifications. To illustrate some of these we cite as 
follows : 

1. Painter and Musician. 2. Author and Sculptor. 

3. Tragedian and Come- 4. Physician and Lawyer, 
dian. 6. Manager and Opera- 

5. Financier and Engin- tive. 

eer. 8. Mechanic and Agent. 

7. Clerk and Laborer. 10. Minister and Saloon- 

9. Politician and Banker. Keeper. 

11. Mariner and Farmer. 12. Miner and Puddler. 

1. It will be evident to many that the above voca- 
tions as classified require very different qualities to make 
any one successful in their practice. In the case of the 
painter and musician, the former requires the faculty 
to perceive an imaginary form or landscape, and holding 
such in mind, to truly reproduce it with hand and 
brush. The latter must have such an ear for music that 
he can blend sounds in such harmony and melody as to 
enchant a listener. 

2. In considering the author and sculptor, the first 
must be able to portray by pen, description or word 
pictures of vivid imagination of experiences and possi- 
bilities in life, also give intellectual description of his 
own or others' doings. The latter must be qualified to 
chisel from the rough marble and stone, or form with 



QUALITIES NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS 109 

plastic material the counterpart of any model or imagin- 
ary figure. 

3. In the tragedian and comedian, we have in the first 
a character that should be able to enact scenes that will 
cause one to be saddened or awed with emotion at the 
cruelty and tyranny of men. In the second, a character 
that must be able to provoke humor, mirth and laughter. 

4. The physician must possess strong nerves to en- 
dure scenes of sickness and surgery; at the same time, 
possess genial, sympathetic qualities. It is essential for 
a lawyer to be quick at repartee, a fluent speaker, keen 
in cross-examination and able to affect others' emotions. 

5. A financier requires ability to successfully plan 
and conduct enterprises involving the outlay of large 
sums of money, which may be his own or that of others 
entrusted to his control. The professional engineer must 
be a man of great resources, able to design massive con- 
structions, oversee their manufacture or erection, and 
master obstacles in spanning and tunneling, which often 
seems impossible to other minds. 

6. A manager must be competent to originate, sys- 
tematize and direct successfully the office, store, shop or 
other affairs of a business concern, and qualified to 
handle men, from the superintendent or foreman down to 
the minor employee, to the best advantage in economically 
manufacturing or distributing a firm's product. An 
operative should possess a subservient, energetic, earnest 
nature, who can labor cheerfully for a wage rate, under 
the guidance of bosses. 

7. A clerk should possess good appearance and ad- 
dress as well as be obliging and courteous. In contrast 
to this, the common laborer must be able to disregard 
personal appearance and often endure very hard labor in 
disagreeable work. 

8. A mechanic must have qualities enabling him to 
skillfully handle tools and plan construction, possess good 
judgment, also be cautious and able to endure hard 
labor. The agent should be a wise judge of human 
nature, possess good presence and address, also be 



no THE COMPETENT LIFE 

cautions and courteous in repartee, as well as keen and 
resourceful in taking advantage of conditions that may 
enable him to make sales. 

9. A politician should be a jolly, well met fellow and 
a good conversationalist; he must also be able to often 
suppress his own dictates of common sense or knowledge 
in order to comply with the various opinions or desires 
of his supporters, and treat as equals, men who may 
often disgust him. A banker should be able to judge well 
the business ability of men, and the value of securities; 
be genial and courteous, still so firm in his decisions that 
no one can influence him to do that which he thinks 
would be detrimental to the best interest of his bank. 

10. A minister should possess a prolific mind, be able 
to treat old subjects in an original way, be a fluent 
speaker and a good logical reasoner, he should also be of 
a strong, sympathetic nature, to comfort those meeting 
adversity or sickness ; he should, however, be able to look 
out for his own interest as well as that of others. A 
saloonkeeper should be able to refrain from drinking, 
withstand the brusqueness of men, have courage to fight, 
and no regard for the happiness of homes. 

11. A mariner must be able to withstand rolling seas, 
climb dizzy heights and endure the absence of family 
or friends which his brother man living on land enjoys. 
A farmer should possess such self-will and energy as to 
keep him industrious and painstaking without being 
bossed, and such a lover of nature as to make him con- 
tented with nature's life. 

12. A miner delving in the earth for coal must have 
a disregard for dirt and smut and absence of daylight. 
The puddler must be able to stand intense heat and 
possess an eye that can be trained to quickly detect 
changes in the temperature and conditions of metals 
in his furnace. 

It is to be understood that the special qualities men- 
tioned in the previous paragraphs do not include all that 
are requisite, as each should, aside from the points men- 
tioned, possess more or less perseverance, courage, mod- 



QUALITIES NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS in 

eration, good health and energy. This latter quality is 
very essential in man to make lives successful. Of what 
benefit is it to be highly talented, if one is so indolent or 
indifferent that he will not use his abilities. 

Man 's great failing is loitering and indolence in work ; 
he is strenuous enough in play or seeking pleasure. 
Many people think if they go through their regular labor 
of daily occupation that they are very energetic, and 
after such is done they should do no more. If they 
ever have a letter to write, or a few chores to do outside 
of their regular day's work, they will have all kinds of 
excuses for delays and it will not be done until some- 
thing like an explosion or an earthquake moves them. 
This class of people can never excel or achieve any great 
or worthy accomplishment. 

The regular routine of daily vocations is in a measure 
with many mechanical and imitative labor. He that would 
achieve success in any line must do more than this. Many 
' ' would do 's " will keep up a constant thinking and plan- 
ning of things they will do tomorrow, but this day never 
comes. The world is full of people who are going to do 
things tomorrow. It is very easy for one to sit with his 
feet upon a chair and think of what he would like to do. 
Thinking and doing are two different things. 

There is only one way to do anything and that is 
make a start and do it. Let no excuses interfere. In 
making an effort, one may have little time to eat, little 
time for idle gossip, or even sleep, as the biography of 
many noted men shows that midnight oil burned freely. 

It is wonderful what energy can accomplish; it has 
caused the world to call many, a genius for what they 
have done, when in reality their achievement was largely 
due to energy and a determination to succeed in anything 
they undertook to do. Many men of inferior ability 
have excelled those standing in higher positions, simply 
because they would work where the more fitted men 
would do nothing other than to think of it. It is re- 
markable how few know anything of their abilities. There 
is hardly anything that helps to educate one's self with 



ii2 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

regard to his own power, as striving to achieve some- 
thing commendable. 

In man's efforts to achieve it may often appear as 
though he came in contact with a stone wall, many feet 
high and wide. To scale the wall would seem impossible, 
but undaunted, he would twist and turn or hop, jump 
and leap until he succeeded and was surprised at the re- 
sults of his perseverance. Nothing can give one such 
genuine pleasure than to achieve more than is antici- 
pated. 

The main factor is to make a start at doing something 
that one has talents to continue, and ten chances to one, 
this done and a little perseverance used, one will be sur- 
prised at the doors that will open to make him perse- 
vere and finally accomplish commendable results he 
little dreamed of before starting. Man surprise thyself, 
should be made a maxim, to be held up before the eyes 
of all, as it is something that every person that has 
achieved greatness has done. Ask men and women who 
have done any great work if they thought at the start 
they would accomplish what they did, and if they are 
honest they will tell you "no," and that they chiefly 
owed all to making a right start and persevering with 
energy, and not genius with which so many successful 
persons are credited. 

The need of courage to overcome obstacles is another 
prominent quality necessary to success in various pur- 
suits, and civilization protects the weak against the 
strong in such a manner that many may go through life 
without knowing how much courage they do possess, or 
the necessity of it. Those who have risen or met adver- 
sity know best their own strength and the need of cour- 
age, often called pluck, nerve or grit. 

There are many situations requiring courage other 
than those of battle. As an illustration, the courage of 
the poor widow or widower who is left with children to 
care for, the mother or wife of an indolent or drunken 
man; those who discover the infidelity of their loved 
mates, and those who suffer by the cruel, uncharit- 



QUALITIES NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS 113 

able tongue of gossip, or slander of enemies. Those meet- 
ing adversity in business or losing their wealth and 
social standing. Those bereft of home ties through sick- 
ness or death, and the children laboring to support 
parents who did little or nothing to aid them to obtain a 
start in life. Those who dare do right, because it is 
right, and those who battle to build and sustain a good 
home, farm, or a business in commercial and industrial 
lines, surmount obstacles that would unnerve the faint 
hearted. Of the last two, there is much that might be 
said to illustrate the need of courage in order to aid men 
to achieve success. 

Many may be compared to some horses that plod along 
on a good level road steadily, but when a hill is ap- 
proached they balk or lay down. The overseer of labor 
is in the best position to observe the dormant or weak 
courage of many to overcome obstacles. This lack of 
courage is one of the weakest points of operatives and 
greatly prevents their rising to higher positions of 
competency in life. All is well with many as long as 
work goes smoothly, but as soon as difficulty arises the 
competent overseer is sought to render assistance, or 
many want to quit their work, no matter if their acts 
should close the works or could ruin a concern. 

Many act as if it were their duty to use what courage 
they possess in making themselves obnoxious as regular 
"kickers," or to be constantly scheming and rasping to 
lower the quantity or quality of their production. If 
they would but put forth a fraction of the courage to do 
things that they display to undo or prevent their being 
done, they certainly would meet with much better success. 

It is often surprising how small an obstacle will dis- 
hearten some or cause them to leave their situations. 
They never stop to think of the many small and great 
obstacles those overseeing them have to face and master. 
There are few establishments but that most operatives 
in them have to face some difficulty in their labor and 
often look to overseers to help them out. If there are one 
hundred or more employees under one overseer he has 



114 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

the troubles or difficulties of nearly all to consider and 
assist in mastering them, but how few note or think of 
what he endures or has to contend with. 

Most employees having any difficulties go straight to 
their overseer and talk and act as though their troubles 
were all that existed in the establishment. Many over- 
seers have more trials in one hour, calling for good cour- 
age in their labor, than any of their employees may have 
or will assume in a year or more, and some of them of 
such a character that the establishment would have to 
close its doors to business were it dependent upon the 
courage displayed by their operatives. 

The first step above being an ordinary employee is that 
of the foreman; next the superintendent, then the 
manager, and above him may be a president. The 
operative generally appeals to the foreman, and if he is 
unable to correct the difficulty, the next highest or the 
president may be sought, and were it not for the greater 
courage of the highest official, the assistance of those in 
charge under him would often be of little aid in pre- 
venting a close of the establishment. We mention this 
connection to show that the higher the position one holds 
in life, the greater as a rule is the strength of courage 
required, and that it is useless for any one to think of 
climbing to any height of success without he can com- 
mand great courage to combat and overcome obstacles. 

It is not intended that any one is to believe operatives 
as a rule possess no courage. It is non-exercise of it to 
their best interest that is condemned. There are few but 
that stand ready to fight with hand or gun, thus showing 
they are not all cowards. Only those that have ex- 
perienced adversities sufficient to break the average 
man's heart are, as a rule, pardonable in not displaying 
some courage or "grit" in their labors. The fault lies 
more in operatives being too indolent to exert their mind 
or body to do anything other than their regular "smooth 
sailing" every-day work. Few perceive that their dis- 
position to repel extra responsibilities becomes such a 



QUALITIES NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS 115 

second nature as to make them unconsciously act the 
coward when difficulties appear to block their progress. 

There is little or nothing achieved in life without meet- 
ing obstacles. Many in looking at persons who achieved 
success in life seem to have a feeling that they had 
mapped out a certain road to travel, and that it only 
required them to make a start and the end was certain 
or could not have been otherwise. It would be a revela- 
tion to many if they could but know the number of 
times in the lives of self-made men that their progress 
was impeded by obstacles which at the time seemed im- 
possible of removal, to leave nothing but ruin for all 
their past exertions and self denials of many years to 
advance themselves. 

The bull-dog tenacity with which some hang to under- 
takings is all that has pulled them through. In fact 
any person that expects to succeed in accomplishing any 
great work in life must have this quality strongly 
stamped in his character. It is a quality that has 
made persons that were weak in other lines push ahead 
of many that were talented and able in all other points 
but that of the courage to persevere. 

It is not meant by the above that perseverance alone 
will bring success to those having no other points in 
ability. There must always be other qualities than per- 
severance to success, but without perseverance few 
can expect to succeed, no matter how able they may 
be. It is the one thing above others that the parent 
should teach the child in rearing it for life's battles. If 
they find it lacks this quality or they cannot develop such 
in them, they might as well give up going any further in 
striving to fit the child for any special line or profes- 
sion in which they expect it to be successful. Even with 
the possession of talents which gives one 's faculties more 
ease in attaining competency, they must, to avoid fail- 
ures, possess perseverance and develop their dormant 
courage so they can combat and master the difficulties 
which are sure to be encountered in their life of labor. 



CHAPTER XII 
Judging, and the Directing Ability to Attain Competency 

All persons differ in ability as all things of a kind dif- 
fer in appearance. One may travel a lifetime to see the 
world's living creatures, its oceans, its lakes and rivers; 
its mountains, hills and valleys ; its trees and foliage, and 
fail to find two things of one kind exactly alike. This 
more than all else teaches us to concede that ability 
must differ in men and that to best utilize these varied 
abilities requires variety in the demands of occupations. 
In this man is favored most generously, for even those of 
weak body or mind can generally find some employment 
which at least should provide for them the necessities 
of life if they are rightly led. 

The selection of a career in the past has been too 
much of an accident, or following of fancy, rather than 
an intelligent analysis of a youth's ability. Every- 
where one goes can be found persons laboring to do that 
for which they have little or no ability, or obtaining a 
poor living by their weakness instead of a good one by 
their strength, wholly due to their inability to wedge 
themselves into their right place. 

When a son or daughter has come to the closing of 
their common school days they have arrived by straight 
travel to a forked road that requires them to await ad- 
vice as to which way they should turn. In after years 
they may look back and either thank or censure their 
advisors, according as they have made a success or 
failure in life. At this separation of the road it should 
be decided whether the minor should turn to assume 
professional, business or other responsibilities requiring 
more education, or whether to enter shops or stores, to 
become a mechanic, clerk, or general laborer. The de- 
cision as to which way the youth shall turn should not 
come as a spontaneous thought not conceived of until it 
halted, but the result of much study, research and 



JUDGING, AND DIRECTING ABILITY 117 

observation extending back for several years before the 
forked road has been reached. To be rightly guided at 
this period of life the parent or guardian should know 
something of a child's qualifications, and also those de- 
manded by the vocation in which they contemplate plac- 
ing the child. 

The employer generally ranks higher in ability to 
judge of capabilities than parents, as many are liable to 
be blinded by parental love and charity for a child's 
weakness. This is unfortunate, as parents are generally 
in the best position to study and develop their children. 

Many youths who are left to guide themselves will find 
that it will serve them well to court frank criticisms of 
their work, or scheme to know themselves through others ' 
eyes. Those who will take an impassionate view of any 
rebuke, on the way they do things, as a means to learn 
wherein they can improve themselves, will, as a rule, find 
such very beneficial and a great contrast to the success 
of those who wrangle or seek pretext to excuse their 
wrong doings. Many of the latter often have to wait 
years of toil or some adversity to teach them wherein 
they erred and could have greatly improved themselves. 

Almost every youth has some decided preference for 
certain vocations. They may come from the promptings 
of true ability, as in cases of the natural born musician, 
painter or poet, then again it may be due to mere fancy 
founded upon the desires to have some clean, easy or 
refined employment. The youth that permits himself to 
be swayed entirely by fancy instead of fitness for a vo- 
cation will generally be a failure. Then again the one 
that seeks to accept a one dollar a day job because it is 
clean, in preference to a two or three-dollars-a-day dirty 
one, though he had ability for both, will find that in re- 
taining the clean one he will generally have an empty 
pocket to make him live the life of a "shabby genteel," 
whereas if his false pride did not influence him he could 
live in plenty and comfort all his days, and provide well 
for old age. 

The world's offices, stores and streets are too thickly 



u8 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

occupied with intelligent persons working or seeking 
clerical labor offering small wages, because it is clean or 
easy work, that could be receiving large incomes to 
afford them good comforts and pleasure during life, had 
they buried their insipid pride when young in the dirt 
and grind of manufacture. These hard or dirty places of 
labor often permit the cultivation of better strength and 
health ; to live a long life than the clean and easy situa- 
tions permit men as a rule to enjoy. 

There are few employers requiring competent help 
who cannot look around and find able intelligent men, 
they would like to have, filling some menial position that 
they feel could have proved very successful in their 
business had they been rightly directed and trained with 
them in their youth. 

Before parents start a youth, or the young take it upon 
themselves to learn a profession or trade, they should 
make every effort to learn the special qualifications 
necessary to success in them. In most every locality we 
find parents sending their sons to college in hopes of 
making a chemist, civil engineer, doctor, druggist, elec- 
trician, lawyer, minister and mining or mechanical en- 
gineers, when they know little or anything of the essen- 
tial qualities demanded by such professions, and who 
often have no more ability for them than a born come- 
dian has for acting tragedy. The intent of the parent is 
for the best, and many in poor circumstances will almost 
starve themselves to give what they call a chance for 
their children, but which too often proves a chance to 
make failures that will ruin all prospects for success in 
life. 

In endeavoring to find out the peculiar and essential 
qualities demanded by any profession or trade, there are 
generally two plans that are well to follow. One is to 
obtain a chance to engage one's services for sufficient time 
in the desired vocation to decide their fitness for it, and 
the other is to council upon the peculiarities and de- 
mands of the vocation sought for with those that are 
noted for their ability and success in them, and in no 



JUDGING, AND DIRECTING ABILITY 119 

case should a youth be tied down to any vocation that 
there is not fair evidence they can be successful in. 

In selecting a career, many fathers endeavor to have 
their sons follow their own vocation. If the father was 
a success, it generally follows that the son should have 
ability for the same line, but this is not to be taken as 
an absolute rule. There are many incidents where 
fathers would have blasted a son's career by compelling 
him to follow his vocation. We have example of such in 
Schiller the Author, Handel the Composer, Thomas 
Edwards the Naturalist, and Ole Bull the Violinist, all 
of whom would never have been known to fame had they 
followed their parents' guidance. There are always a 
few whose talents are so pronounced as to leave no doubts 
in the minds of competent judges what pursuits they 
would best succeed in. However, many youths exhibit 
such little outward indications of that for which they are 
best fitted that they are often taken to do menial work, 
with small recompense, if they do not drift by chance into 
good vocations they have natural ability for. 

Parents all over the world are making some dire mis- 
takes and sacrifices every day in the way they direct 
their children's talents. Many fathers are doing right 
the opposite to that they should do. It is no uncommon 
thing to hear a father say, "I do not want my son to 
learn my trade, ' ' and make every endeavor to get him to 
learn some other trade. If such would but stop to think 
how other fathers run down their vocations, they might 
perceive that all kinds of employment have their objec- 
tionable features, and as long as people must work for a 
living, they cannot expect solid comfort or their own 
way like those possessing sufficient wealth to enter the 
" retired list." In seeking occupations, it is not a ques- 
tion of like or fancy, but more one of sterner issue, de- 
manding that we work for a living and in doing so we 
make the load lighter according as our talents are used 
to the best advantage. 

One great evil with our present system of developing 
and directing children's talents lies in the fact that the 



120 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

majority of beginners are forced out into the world to 
seek their own vocations. The question of ability and lines 
in greatest need of workers does not receive much consid- 
eration. A situation is wanted that will supply the sheer 
necessities of life, and they generally are forced to accept 
the first opening, be it good or something in no way suited 
to their ability. This makes wise adaptation of natural 
ability in connection with selecting vocations in greatest 
need of workers, a lottery with many unfavorable 
chances. It is very unfortunate that any person should 
be compelled to take such risks, and it would seem that in 
such an important crisis, modern civilization should be 
able to provide means to judiciously direct their energies, 
especially when we consider that the number who do 
make success of life are satisfied with their lot, and worth 
more to themselves and their country than otherwise 
possible. 

What we can do to improve our present method of 
training is a question that may well be asked. There are 
decided improvements that could be made. In the first 
place we should look to our homes. If a father or mother 
has proved successful in any one line, the chances are 
greatly in favor of the children possessing talents, per- 
mitting them to do likewise. Why should we not expect 
this? Where in all nature can we find like does not 
beget like. However a child may have the disposition 
and talents of their parents so intermingled as to confuse 
and destroy their power to achieve the accomplishments 
of either of their parents. It is chiefly in the inter- 
mingling of the parents' disposition and abilities in a 
child that we have cause to suspect it might not have 
the capacity to equal either of their achievements, and 
thereby often take from us the hereditary relation we 
naturally expect to find in like begetting like and there- 
by often force us to seek other measures in order to 
learn a child's qualifications. 

It is natural to expect children to possess dispositions 
and talents found in their fathers or mothers. It may 
be argued that we rarely find the children of wealthy or 



JUDGING, AND DIRECTING ABILITY 121 

celebrated people proving equal to their parents, but 
we must keep in mind that the children of wealthy or 
eminent persons are often heavily handicapped from the 
start, for being born wealthy they often lack the in- 
centive for exerting themselves that the poor have and 
they may never learn of the ability they possess. In 
other cases their social environments often prove such a 
barrier as to prevent their seeking employment for their 
talents in directions that might make them famous. 
Even if a young man or woman were willing to sacrifice 
fashionable society's dictates, to obtain practical ex- 
perience, from the beginning up, which they should have, 
the parents would often object for fear such would in- 
jure their social standing. In a measure we find similar 
influence among the poor and middle classes. 

As a rule, industrious parents desire to see their 
children obtain higher positions than they themselves 
hold and will make many sacrifices to educate and keep 
them well dressed with a little spending money in their 
pockets and free from any kind of labor, thinking that 
they may attain a social standing among the higher 
classes whom they often unwisely try to imitate. Such 
conditions cause the young to take a false position in 
starting life and which when once assumed, their pride 
will not permit them to come down to the level they 
should in order to get a foundation for solidity of char- 
acter and competency in life. 

False pride rarely if ever benefits any one. Such 
training with the poorer classes often cause adults to live 
a life of bluff and bluster, or to depend upon their wits, 
which is a condition very injurious to the existence of 
true homes and a nation's welfare. The more parents 
teach children to be true to themselves or to assume noth- 
ing but that which is natural to their ability or means, 
the better competents will they make. Every sane child 
has some talent that if not stifled with a false pride, may, 
by proper training and direction, become a credit to 
themselves and all concerned. 

In passing judgment as to a child's adaptability to 



122 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

make a success in any one line it may have exhibited 
a desire for, a parent should use the greatest caution to 
make sure that the exhibitions are not mere fancies. As, 
for example, we often see boys who whittle, or show a 
great fondness for machinery, and because they take 
pleasure in some of these things, the parents often 
jump at the conclusion that the child would make a 
cabinet maker, iron worker, or the like, but when tested 
later on in life, these inclinations only proved to be 
childish whims. 

Children's curiosity in seeking pleasure or in passing 
time, often causes them to play and fuss with things 
that they have not the full ability for making a success 
of. Playing with a thing for a pastime and working at 
it in competition with others for a living are two dif- 
ferent matters. When parents consider that every voca- 
tion demands certain peculiar qualifications to bring suc- 
cess in the face of stern competition that cannot be de- 
veloped by child's play, they should be most careful in 
yielding to a child's fancy. 

Altogether too many lives have been wrecked and too 
many people become discontented and condemn the 
world, because parents mistook their children's whims in 
seeking certain plays, for evidence of talents. This is 
not saying that children may not exhibit tastes or desires 
to follow a line that they could be successful in; but 
the parents should await very marked evidences of tastes 
and abilities before coming to a conclusion, and if such 
is favorable, they should lose no time in aiding the 
child to develop its talents sufficiently to permit its 
being put to the test of competition with those having 
proved their ability, or gained renown for the excellence 
of their work. 

There is no vocation but that demands varied qualifi- 
cations. If there are six different ones required and a 
person only has five, the lack of the sixth may so se- 
riously decrease his efficiency to master it, that he 
might as well be deficient in all of them, thus showing 
how careful minors should be before undertaking to 



JUDGING, AND DIRECTING ABILITY 123 

learn any pursuit with the view of holding to it for 
life. 

Those desiring to elevate themselves or their children 
to positions for which they may think they have ability, 
could not do better at the present time than to utilize 
phrenology and make a study of the characteristics of 
those whom they know had risen by force of their own 
merit. By such means youths could become greatly in- 
formed of their own qualifications and many points 
necessary to compete with others successfully. 

Aside from the means that have been cited, it is not 
impractical to devise methods whereby persons could 
have their ability defined and guided to a large degree 
by what we will suggest as, A Qualification Directory 
Institute. Such an aid might be often connected with 
manual training schools or establishments of the char- 
acter suggested in the next chapter, for the training 
of youths. In such institutions the young should be 
able to obtain valuable information concerning the voca- 
tion for which they are best fitted. 

The inauguration of the above plans in connection 
with the loan agency and employment bureaus, sug- 
gested on page 107, should be very helpful to the 
young. It is to be hoped that the advancement of 
civilization will eventually annul the misery and crime 
begotten by the ill direction of man's capabilities. It is 
a problem that man must work out for himself, and 
every epoch should witness marked improvement by 
such efforts. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Need of Technical Education with Skill and Plans for 
Training 

To become practical to the fullest extent in any voca- 
tion requires more or less technical and business edu- 
cation. Actual practice trains one to do a thing, and 
technical study causes one to understand the principles 
involved. Any one provided with matches can kindle 
a fire that may burn down a whole city, without pos- 
sessing the least knowledge of the principles involved 
in combustion, or the manufacture of matches, but if 
on any occasion a fire was wanted and no matches or 
heat existed a little technical knowledge might be used 
to a great advantage. Again one might by practice be- 
come a good swimmer without knowing anything other 
than that it was necessary to work the arms and legs, 
but a knowledge of the principles involved in keeping 
the lungs full of air, making it easy to float or tread 
water, could in some cases be the means of saving one's 
life. On the other hand, should one know all the tech- 
nique about the art of swimming but had never practiced 
it, there would be much less chance of his keeping above 
water, thus demonstrating the wisdom of combining 
practice and theory under nearly all conditions. 

There are principles involved in almost every work 
man can be called upon to do; even the handling of 
pick and shovel has principles involved that permit 
those understanding them to be better able to make 
or use such tools. Understanding the principles in- 
volved in any labor or appliance, will not only permit 
one to do better work, and be able to remedy difficulties, 
but to also do original work that may be creditable. 

Within the past fifteen years there have been quite 
a number of institutions which have taken up the work 
of teaching the technique or the principles involved 
in a few useful vocations for men and women, such as 



NEED OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION 125 

blacksmithing, carpentering, machine finishing, mould- 
ing, and pattern making; cooking, sewing and the like. 
Some of these institutions are doing a very good work, 
but the technical training can for most all vocations 
be greatly improved. In reality, there are some voca- 
tions for which no instructions at the present time 
can be received, aside from the little that can be ob- 
tained from its current literature. Whether a beginner 
is to train for a professional career or not there should 
be means to teach all the technical that exists of the 
vocation to be followed. It is with pleasure that the 
author can cite one institution which is planning to 
do this to a greater extent than has yet been attempted. 

The college or training works which can only give 
a superficial knowledge of the technical of any voca- 
tion, is, in too many cases doing more harm than good. 
We are overrun with the "smatterer" at every turn. 
The cry is for proficiency, such as can be only found in 
the thoroughly trained student or apprentice. Institutions 
such as this chapter describes could in time create 
sufficient numbers that by their own work and influences 
alone, could so improve man's capabilities that it would 
take but a few years to reverse the tendencies which 
are now so injurious to the development of proficiency 
in workers and managers. 

Many of these pages could be filled in merely re- 
citing the great evils of only obtaining a superficial 
knowledge or experience of vocations. A person who 
engages as a professional or " experienced hand" in 
a vocation, and is soon discovered to be little better 
than a beginner, is as much a fraud as those who sell 
adulterated commodities for pure ones. Again if he 
does disclose his weakness before he starts to work he 
has much to be ashamed of, thus causing the incom- 
petent to be a good deal like one between "the deep sea 
and the devil." 

There are few factors that should be discouraged 
more, wherever found, than the prevailing pretensions 
of those who claim the mastery of vocations that they 



126 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

have little knowledge of. The great number that to- 
day possess but a smattering experience in professional 
and unprofessional vocations is astonishing. 

The present incompetency of too many Caucasians 
is chiefly due to obtaining but a superficial knowledge 
or experience of vocations in which they are engaged. 
It is one of the greatest evils of our nations, and the 
best influences of the Press and Rostrum and every other 
agency in man's power should be exerted to decry 
the degenerating influences of the superficial worker. 
The injury that has been done will have to pass, but 
there is time to change for the better and no effort 
should be spared to displace the superficial knowledge 
and experience of the "would be's" with the perfection 
and skill that is possible for any of fair intelligence 
that will devote the time necessary to learn and master 
the vocations for which they are fitted. 

The training needed in trade or commercial voca- 
tions is the broadest of practical and technical school- 
ing combined in one institution, or the opportunity to 
labor at actual practice during working hours in one 
place, and studying the technical and business methods 
in the evening in another. 

The difference in the time required to obtain a good 
start in learning the practical and technical will differ 
according to the occupation. The ordinary vocations for 
men such as blacksmithing, boiler-making, car- 
pentering, electricity, farming, glass-making, machine- 
finishing, masonry, moulding, painting, pattern-making, 
plastering, plumbing, rolling steel and iron, steam and 
gas engineering, tin-smithing, weaving, etc., with cooking, 
sewing and other occupations for women, should rarely 
exceed one to ten per cent of the time for the technical 
compared to that required for the practical. The ex- 
treme time for the technical and business studies should 
rarely call for over six hours per week which for even- 
ing study, if divided into three nights would only re- 
quire two hours each evening and this should not in- 
jure anyone, though he worked hard for eight to 



NEED OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION 127 

ten hours during the day for three to five years, or 
the time necessary to obtain sufficient experience to 
justly apply for skilled workers' positions. 

The above ratios of percentage of time advanced is 
about the reverse of that practiced at some colleges and 
therefore makes the little practical received in them often 
more injurious than beneficial. Such superficial knowl- 
edge has caused many bosses and professional engineers 
to approve the sentiment of a certain large experienced 
mechanical engineer who said he would "just as leave 
see the devil coming to work under him as a fresh col- 
lege graduate." Colleges are a great benefit to any 
country, but they should be guarded in their efforts 
to teach the practical end of vocations when time cannot 
permit their going to the extent necessary to cause 
a student to fairly realize the scope of experience re- 
quired to fit one for becoming an ordinary journeyman, 
let alone a master hand. 

If the college aims to teach the practical of any trade 
or profession but is unable to give the instruction neces- 
sary to high proficiency or complete mastery, then 
it should confine its instructions to the principles in- 
volved in the vocations which are included in the cur- 
riculum of the institution. Such a study of principles 
should be so sufficiently thorough that a student can 
know whether a work is done upon right principles even 
though he is unable to pursue a course in the actual 
practice of the trade. This suggestion is applicable to 
most all professions and trades wherein there is oppor- 
tunity for a technical training. 

We have suggested the advisability of studies/ in busi- 
ness methods to be carried along with the technical, as 
the man that possesses a knowledge of business methods 
can utilize such to a great advantage in aiding him to 
be a good general manager. Combine expert ability 
for shop and office work in one person and we have 
what may be truly cited as the training needed to make 
the most perfect manager. Should any student not wish 
to take the business course in connection with the techni- 



128 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

cal such could, of course, be omitted. There is no reason 
why the two could not be combined with the practical to 
a great advantage. Such training would afford aspiring 
youths who seek places as managers or presidents, a 
knowledge of business methods and thus make them not 
only competent to oversee the shop work but also the 
office responsibilities as well; a combination of ability 
that many at the head of large concerns at the present 
day would like to possess. 

The author created much interest in the question of 
needs and means for training boys to be good skilled 
workers by the presentation of papers before edu- 
cational associations and in the trade papers during 
1900, but as the commendable efforts started in this work 
by others which this aroused, are not taking the direc- 
tion the author believes best and necessary in a general 
way is, one reason for presenting the subject upon the 
original lines displayed in this chapter. There are sev- 
eral plans now being pursued, but as to which is the 
best, combining the practical and technical work in one 
institution, or obtaining the practical at a distance from 
the technical, as cited on page 126, will depend upon 
conditions. Either method is practical if it be rightly 
conducted, but the technical teacher should possess the 
broadest practical experience possible, for in these days 
of specialization, if he is not broadly experienced in all 
technical knowledge in such a manner as to aid in the ap- 
plication of principles, without making errors, it would 
often make his efforts to do good more of an injury than 
a benefit. 

The ideal institution for creating highly skilled labor 
giving men a thorough technical knowledge of their voca- 
tions for such trades as blacksmiths, boiler-makers, ma- 
chinists, moulders and pattern-makers, is what might 
be termed Training Works, the locations and vocations 
being in the front as in The New York Blacksmith 
Training Works. In such establishments the aim should 
be to "give the boy a chance' ' under broad experienced 
instructors whose business it would be to advance ap- 



NEED OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION 129 

prentices to places of skilled workers in all the branches 
of the vocation being taught, as rapidly as their ability 
would allow them to forge ahead. 

These works could exist as stock companies, in which 
all officers and instructors would be expected to hold 
shares, or they could be of private holdings ; then again 
the works could exist as municipal properties, created 
through private or state donations. It would be bene- 
ficial to have all officers and operatives share in the 
benefits of such organization after plans stated further on 
in order to make them interested in the success of such 
works to the fullest measure possible. 

Training works should not only be organized for the 
purpose of teaching the young to be skillful or efficient 
workers and managers, but also for making a fair profit 
on the investment, and to insure the first the second 
would be a necessity. There is no reason why with a 
good, shrewd, practical business man as president, 
broadly skilled instructors as superintendent and lead- 
ing workers, they should not be a success, provided they 
could obtain and hold the number of apprentices they 
should have. A plan for the above is given on page 134. 

It would generally be advisable to have such voca- 
tions as could be grouped together, brought under one 
managing head, although it would not be a necessity. 
The works should be located as central as practical in 
the section from which it expected to draw its chief 
trade, they should also have sufficient land in sight in 
which to extend buildings to meet the greatest growth 
anticipated. 

A good illustration of the stately appearance which 
such training works should present can be formed by 
noting the illustration on page 131 which shows 
views of the factories of the Port Huron Engine & 
Thresher Co., Port Huron, Michigan, furnished by the 
courtesy of "The Foundry," Cleveland, 0. 

The works should be operated from eight to ten hours 
per day according to business in hand and the work 
would, as a rule, be obtained in open competition with 



130 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

outside concerns. If work did not contain sufficient 
variety to include all the branches of the vocation being 
learned, then whatever was missing should be the subject 
for illustration in the evening at the shop or hall meet- 
ings, along with the technical and business studies. Aside 
from these factors it should be the aim of the works to 
be constantly on the lookout for all the new and in- 
tricate work it could find being done outside of its own 
plant and give instructions as to how such work could 
be constructed. These suggestions for technical teach- 
ing, some colleges could also adopt with much profit. 

The leading aim of such works should be to prevent 
the learner from being narrowed down by experience 
or knowledge to do only one class of work, as is done 
in specializing, and which is a great factor limiting op- 
portunities for making broadly skilled workers. 

The industrial student should be trained to become 
such a master of his chosen vocation, before leaving his 
instructors, that when placed in competition with the 
best workmen he would compel respect for his mastery, 
and make so prominent the inability of the superficial 
" would be," that labor itself would be a very en- 
thusiastic element to endorse the existence of training 
works. 

It would also be beneficial if each training works 
could have a social club which would admit all em- 
ployees and apprentices after they had served two years 
in connection with the admittance of the proprietors 
and instructors as well. The object of the social club be- 
ing a recognition of skill, promotion of true manhood 
and good fellowship, such as would endear them to their 
works and associations so long as they live. 

To assist in creating a desire for membership in the 
social club and an interest in the works, it would be an 
excellent plan to divide a percentage of a works' profit 
among all those accepted as members. Not only should 
such actions cause instructors and any journeymen that 
would be engaged to share in the profits of a works, but 
also cause them to feel more kindly to apprentices, so 



NEED OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION 133 

as to do all in their power to help them become skilled 
workers. Other influences aside from the above to aid ap- 
prentices being pushed ahead in their work, would be : 

First. Anxiety of officials to maintain a reputation 
for turning out the best high skilled workers. 

Second. A public expectation of achievements by 
apprentices over that which was possible in general pub- 
lic or outside practices. 

Third. The fact of an institution being founded for 
a special purpose, would demand such a recognition and 
practice of its aims by apprentices, that they could not 
be ignored without destroying the internal harmony 
necessary to the success of such works. 

Fourth. Apprentices having bound themselves for 
the purpose of having exceptional advantages in learn- 
ing would be supported by public opinion and the 
courts, could they prove such was not being accorded 
them. 

Fifth. The opportunity to so advantageously con- 
nect the technical and business with the practical as 
would be difficult, if not impossible, under other existing 
means. 

Almost every state should possess one, if not more, 
training works for every vocation it had need of. Out- 
side employers, although they might lose some contracts 
due to their existence should encourage their mainte- 
nance, as such works could greatly aid the labor market, 
by supplying it with more competent operatives now so 
urgently required by most employers. Training works 
should not only teach the practical and technical of the 
vocations taught, as well as something of business 
methods, but might often do much to excel the discipline 
of the home in guarding youths against acquiring bad 
habits, and help to banish some of the baneful traits 
as are cited in chapters XVII and XVIII. 

Much difficulty might often be encountered in ob- 
taining sufficient youths to bind themselves to serve a 
full apprenticeship, owing to the inability of many to 
support themselves the first one or two years, but could 



134 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

means be provided to assist such to bridge over this 
period, then the problem of creating more efficient work- 
ers and of helping the poor boy to obtain a start would 
be greatly solved. 

There are persons with millions, donating more or less 
to worthy causes, who could do much good in help- 
ing the work advocated by this chapter, and which could 
be done by placing any donation they might see fit 
to make, in the keeping of responsible trustees and di- 
rectors who would in turn loan its funds to youths to aid 
in supporting them during the first one or two years of 
their apprenticeship. The loan could be made payable 
with interest inside of two years after apprentices left 
the works, which is easily done as is shown later on, pro- 
viding sickness or reverses prevented his doing so before 
the expiration of his time. In acknowledgment of its 
payment a certificate of membership in the alma mater 
could be tendered him. The certificate would not only 
be one to convey honor to the possessor, so far as show- 
ing him to be a graduate of a training works, but if he 
had contracted a debt it would also show that he was 
man enough to pay debts, that regard for honesty and 
honorable dealing was the only bond that bound him to 
do a duty. 

The principal with interest being returned would help 
other boys to obtain a start and $100,000 donated to 
such an institution would be sufficient to provide for two 
hundred apprentices in their coming and going so long 
as the principal lasted and which should by reason of 
the 6 per cent interest, collectible on all loans, maintain 
the principal for several decades against great losses due 
to inability to pay by reason of disability or deaths. In 
the absence of any gifts from beneficiaries, it might then 
be necessary for some apprentices to seek loans secured 
by collateral or bondsman after the plan suggested in the 
pages 105 and 107. 

A second difficulty that training works would en- 
counter lies in holding apprentices to serve their allotted 
time. This could be largely guarded against by retain- 



NEED OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION 135 

ing 10 per cent of their wages, the same to be paid back 
at the completion of their apprenticeship or contract. 

If the wages were rated at seventy cents, with the 10 
per cent retainer deducted, it would give 63 cents per 
day for the first year. $1.00 per day for the second 
year would give 90 cents. $1.50 per day for the third 
year would net $1.35, and $2.00 per day for the fourth 
year would tender $1.80. Allowing 293 days for a year 
(as given on page 103) would leave a balance of 
$152.36 to accrue from the 10 per cent retainer, that 
would be due the apprentice at the termination of his 
contract. If he had borrowed 57 cents per day for 
the first year, in advance of his starting and 30 cents 
per day for the second year at his commencement, such 
would allow him $1.20 per day to live on for two years. 
By this means he would contract a debt of $167.01 for the 
first year and $87.90 for the second, or a total for the two 
years of $254.91. 

If he was obliged to let his debt run to the close of 
his fourth year, he would then have by reason of in- 
terest due, a total debt of $310.79. Deducting his re- 
tainer of $152.36 from the latter would leave him $158.43 
that he would be honor bound to pay with interest within 
two years. If he had saved 50 cents per day out of 
his last year's wages, as should be very easy for a single 
person to do, he could leave the works at the end of his 
contract owing but $11.93. 

With greater economy than suggested in the saving of 
wages, which is practical in the majority of cases, in 
connection with his share of profits, he might instead 
of owing money, leave the works in possession of his ap- 
prenticeship certificate, and sufficient cash to buy him 
a good suit of clothes, having some to spare. Well 
dressed, with a trade in his hands, business method 
in his head, and money in his pockets, he would stand 
an emblem of independence, a man whose future should 
be so bright and full of such promise, that in looking 
back he could have no regrets for having faithfully 
served a full apprenticeship in a training works. 



136 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

It will be noticed in the above rates that small wages 
are payed for the first two years, while good ones are 
forthcoming for the last two. This system of rates, 
aside from the retaining of 10 per cent, should be very 
effective in holding apprentices to the end of their con- 
tract, especially, when they are made to feel that the clos- 
ing year will be their best to gain experience and is far 
in advance of what they could obtain elsewhere. 

The third difficulty that could confront training works 
would lie in not always having sufficient orders in hand 
to keep its apprentices steadily employed, as any country 
is bound to have its dull and busy periods. This factor 
should be considered as it is with all other concerns, 
by first laying off the poorest of the journeymen of 
which there would be more or less at work in good times, 
and then with apprentices in their order, so that all 
would be treated alike in having vacations, but, any time 
thus lost by students should be made up. 

Give training works a fair start there should be 
little reason to fear their inability to compete for trade 
and thereby have little cause to lay off any apprentices, 
unless times were exceptionally poor and if such was 
the case, any laid off would fare no worse than the 
majority would, if employed in other concerns. 

It is not to be expected that training works such as 
this chapter describes will spring into prominence right 
away, but the outlook affirms that some such institu- 
tions will in time be found a necessity in order to ''give 
the boy a chance," and to help create more skilled ar- 
tisans and practical managers which are so urgently 
needed. In the meantime, those that are laboring to at- 
tain skill in regular occupations, as best they may, should 
take advantage of any means that exist to teach them all 
the technique and business knowledge they can obtain of 
their vocation, as such will increase competency and 
qualify them for higher positions involving an increase in 
wages, and assisting many to become good efficient fore- 
men and managers. 

Any condition that increases knowledge and develops 



NEED OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION 137 

skill in shop and office work, is not only helpful to labor 
but also essential, and the social reformers of to-day- 
can find little work of larger importance than that of 
putting forth their best efforts to aid in bringing about 
such an advancement as is advocated in this chapter. 



PART II 



CHAPTER XIV 
Causes and Extent of Poverty and Pauperism 

There are numerous causes for poverty and pauperism 
in the different countries; some of which are excusable 
while others are not. Statistics for 1904 show that Eng- 
land and Wales, with 32,527,343 population and steadily 
increasing wealth, had, aside from her moderately poor, 
over 800,000 paupers, while Scotland, with a population 
of 4,472,103, had fully 90,000, and Ireland with 4,458,- 
775 people had about the same number. 

People who are poor or in abject poverty in such a 
country as the United States are so largely because 
of drunkenness, indolence, extravagance or lack of am- 
bition, ill health or other misfortunes. Aside from the 
last two factors there is little excuse for one 's being very 
poor in a country like ours, especially in prosperous 
times. In dull times, the lack of employment can ex- 
cuse some for having to live in want or distress, but even 
of these there could be fewer if more would take heed 
of to-morrow. This is well illustrated by the number 
of uncalled-for charity seekers who have existed in this 
country. It was estimated by Mr. Robert Hunter, in his 
work on "Poverty," that there were in 1900 about ten 
millions of persons in the United States who were under- 
fed, poorly clothed and improperly housed, or who ex- 
sited in a state of poverty. 

One great difficulty with many working people lies 
in their total inability to manage their own affairs. It 
makes little difference with many whether they receive 
$1.50 or $6.00 per day. A few days after obtaining 
their pay they are as poor with the large sum as with 
the small one. Such never show any ability to plan 
ahead for anything and are liable to be so full of ' ' fool 's 
independence," that they are seldom out of trouble. If 
they have any common sense they fail to exhibit it when 
they should. 



144 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

The foolish actions of many can cause a belief that 
it would be best for some if they could be placed under 
the paternal charge of employers after the present 
fashion of Japan, where instead of allowing a rate of 
wages that will permit employees to have spare funds 
for themselves, the employers put away a certain sum 
for contingencies, such as births, weddings, holidays, 
sickness or deaths and the like, which they will dispense 
to their employees as they think it is an urgent neces- 
sity. Whether such a parental control is advisable or 
not, the way many act would recommend the plan as a 
good one to keep them from approaching such poverty 
as could often drag them to the greatest depths of pau- 
perism. 

Indolence, lack of ambition and self respect, also 
drunkenness, are undoubtedly the greatest evils promot- 
ing poverty. The men and women who manage busi- 
ness or oversee employees in performing clerical or 
manual labor are the best situated to observe how detri- 
mental these qualities are, in often causing people to 
be dependent upon charity, or suffering for the neces- 
sities of life when sickness, slackness of work, or the 
slightest adversity overtakes them. 

The evils of the above four qualities are best ob- 
served in prosperous times, when labor is scarce, and 
employers are begging men not to lose unnecessary time. 
We see these evils again in handling men, where bosses 
have time and time again offered employees chances for 
promotion to attain increase of wages, and had the 
same rejected, for no other reason than that the workers 
did not wish to load themselves with the greater re- 
sponsibility and study required. They simply did not 
want anything to disturb their brain, notwithstanding 
the inducement in extra wages. Such indolent, indiffer- 
ent persons are among the first to be let go when 
work commences to be scarce, and in a few days are in 
the hands of charity, expecting those who do as- 
sume responsibilities, to share their bounty with them. 
How many such loiterers stop to think of how they 



CAUSES AND EXTENT OF POVERTY 145 

would have to suffer for the actual necessities of life, to 
say nothing of the pleasures and comforts, did not others 
assume the responsibilities they rejected. 

In prosperous times many will take any pretext to 
lay off work, that they would not for a moment think 
of taking in dull times. This is not because some are 
not as desirous of loafing one time as another, but wholly 
for the reason that when men are scarce, they do not 
fear being discharged, as they have but to go a short 
distance to secure another job, when they feel forced to 
return to work. 

Persons who loaf so much in busy times, are often 
found complaining about the comforts and wealth of 
the prosperous, and go about whining of ill luck, 
when dull times find them subjects of charity. Is it any 
wonder that many overseers of labor become hardened 
against the appeals of poverty in dull times? One 
would think that employees would use the same common 
sense as employers, who, when times are brisk, strive to 
make as much money as they can and provide for dull 
periods, as in the maxim, "Make hay while the sun 
shines." It is an old saying that working men are 
fools over their own interests, and the way many act 
brings censure not only on themselves, but upon those 
who do act sensibly. 

The poverty of some people is largely accounted for 
by the indolence they exhibit in not keeping their homes 
neat and clean. Living in the squalor which many peo- 
ple do, is wholly uncalled for and could easily be 
remedied by a little industry on the part of the "bread 
winner" and bread kneader. The time and money many 
spend in loitering around saloons and in idle gossip on 
street corners, etc., would be more than sufficient to repair 
the wear and tear of homes as well as free yards of 
useless rubbage. The poorest paid rarely work such long 
hours but that some time could be given up by the man 
and wife in repairing and beautifying the home. 

The effects of indolence is also exhibited by the care 
some farmers take of their homes and land. Some will 



146 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

earn a good living, dress well and have plenty of every- 
thing from a few acres of land, while others having 50 
acres or more will live a good deal like paupers. Their 
fences will be found down, barns and houses shattered, 
land full of weeds and stumps, and what cattle they have 
will look so uncared for as to cause one to think they 
were ownerless. Can it be said, that such people are kept 
down by the tyranny of capital or the lack of oppor- 
tunities? Is it not one of the evidences we possess that 
any person in a country like the United States is largely 
responsible, where there is health and no misfortune, 
for their own condition, should they be poor and not 
prosperous ? 

The indolence of many farmers goes to show more 
than anything else that many persons to be prosperous 
by their own manual labors, require as a rule, to be 
bossed or come under the control of management that 
can keep them at work. 

The farm of Mr. George Moore, illustrated on page 147, 
is in Hickory Township, Pennsylvania, and that has 
a history as a money maker. The original owner, 
the late Mr. N. D. Moore, started with little means save 
his own strength and willingness to labor, and by earnest 
industry on the part of himself and two sons, the farm 
was paid for and enough money made to purchase other 
farms which are now creating, aside from extensive 
crops, a good bank account. Had the beginners hung 
around saloons or the corner grocery store, as so many 
loitering farmers do, they might have been patrons of a 
poorhouse instead of a bank as the sons are to-day. 

It is well for civilization that the power of govern- 
ment and management is such that it can lift man above 
indolence and compel him to work. If there were no 
such influences we would have but to look at the hovels 
of indolent employees, or many farmers to show us the 
squalor that would pervade everywhere, in place of the 
beautiful homes, farms, villages, towns and cities, with 
their public conveniences, pleasures and comforts, that 
are rendered by the industrious, painstaking assumers 



CAUSES AND EXTENT OF POVERTY 149 

of responsibilities, which, though in the minority, has 
by constant vigilance, industry and strife maintained 
that which is creditable to man. 

A person may be ambitious to possess riches or lux- 
uries of life, but if too indolent to strive for them, they 
might as well be lacking in ambition, for without energy 
and effort, ambition counts for naught, and it is hardly 
just to credit a person with ambition, that is too indolent 
to exercise energy. Annul indolence, and the squalor and 
want now so prevalent would largely give place to 
cleanliness and plenty. 

Assumption of carriage and address that is not na- 
tural or fitting to one's income or circumstances, is an- 
other factor that keeps many poor all their lives, aside 
from carrying many to the verge of pauperism, to be 
thrown upon the charity of children, or a cold world 
in their old age. This false pride is often very per- 
cep table in villages and small towns, and is largely due 
to conditions causing all to know each other and some 
not desiring to be thought less important than the best, 
regardless of their ability or financial standing ; whereas 
in large cities one might live a whole life time and know 
little of their neighbors, or rarely meet any one on the 
street that they feel obligated to speak to. This condi- 
tion incites less desire to display assumption and re- 
sults in larger numbers of the poor and middle classes 
being more natural in their appearance. 

We wish it understood that we do not condemn the 
acquirement of good manners and address, in living the 
"simple life," as this is a great factor that can help to 
maintain good wages; it is the lack of effort to attain 
true ability, or where there is no reliability or solidity in 
the assumed appearance that we condemn. This point is 
treated further on pages 179-181. 

Extravagance in those things that afford us passing 
pleasures, are also factors causing many people to always 
be poor. The young of to-day have many more ave- 
nues open for recreation, amusement and social attrac- 
tions to allure them from the path of practical training, 



150 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

industry and rectitude than ever existed. At almost 
every hour, there is something to allure the young from 
the strict adherence to the studies or duties that they 
should pursue. The atmosphere is so pervaded with 
sports, amusements, and the various fascinations of so- 
ciety, that it is difficult to make some of the young believe 
that they should not participate in every event that 
occurs. This results in causing a great number of peo- 
ple to be constantly seeking rounds of pleasure, to spend 
the little they may earn, instead of using sufficient time 
to make themselves proficient to earn fair wages and 
strive to save some. Man requires some pleasures, but 
when a nation gets so that pleasure seeking is about all 
that its young will take the greatest interest in, it is time 
influences were being brought upon them to turn their 
thoughts more to the serious and practical side of life. 

The fascination of a life of ease and pleasure carries 
a great number along, so that they are constantly more 
or less in debt, and at the rounding out of life's end 
they are the subjects of charity. Not only do some peo- . 
pie injure themselves by permitting the allurements of 
ease and pleasures to take their time and money, but 
also effect their country, as habitual pleasure seekers 
cannot be as beneficial as those who labor earnestly to 
help carry the responsibilities that burden civilization. 

Man's indolence and preference for pleasure, com- 
bined with drinking, has driven many women into oc- 
cupations that are not their natural sphere. Instead 
of being blessed with the protection of an able husband, 
good home and motherhood, she is often compelled to 
compete with man for wage hire, which are generally 
less for women and often so low as to cause her to suffer 
for the actual necessities of life; on the other hand, 
some women who are fortunate enough to secure good 
husbands are such slovenly housekeepers, poor managers 
or great spendthrifts, that men naturally fear to risk 
entering the marriage state, thereby making women 
themselves the cause of much singleness and poverty in 
their own sex. This they should strive to remedy, as 



CAUSES AND EXTENT OF POVERTY 151 

should men make efforts to annul their imperfections. 

The effects of intemperance in causing poverty are 
forcibly illustrated in almost every community, and 
cause as great, if not more want, suffering and wretch- 
edness than any other folly or weakness that man is 
heir to. The drink habit of to-day not only increases 
the cost of production and makes paupers and criminals 
of many, but compels great numbers of women and 
children to support themselves the best they may, while 
the husband or father gets along after the fashion of 
"bums" or tramps. An isolated island has been sug- 
gested as an asylum for anarchists, would it not be a 
good thing for humanity, if such were also established 
for husbands and others that disgrace the name of man, 
by habitual drunkenness? 

Ill health and misfortune are nearly all the just causes 
there are for being poor or poverty stricken in a country 
like the United States. Misfortune includes those who 
from a just cause, cannot obtain employment, become 
maimed or crippled, or have reverses in love, marriage, 
or in business, as well as those ruined by disasters. Some 
rise above misfortune no matter what the trouble or 
disaster, while others less strong go down forever under 
comparatively light trials. 

Mr. John A. Hobson, author of "Problems of 
Poverty," treats one point of the effects of intemper- 
ance upon the working classes, which we desire to dis- 
cuss, as is found in his instructive work, on page 179 and 
quoted as follows: "If, by a crusade of temperance 
pure and simple, you made teetotalers of the mass of 
low skilled workers, their wages would undisputedly 
fall, although they might be more competent workers 
than before." 

To advocate that causing all low skilled labor to stop 
drinking, would be the means of lowering wages cannot 
appeal to overseers of labor as being true. There are 
few employers who are afflicted with drinking employees 
but would be able to pay higher wages or sell cheaper 
than they do, could they be assured that all their opera- 



152 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

tives would not touch drink. Aside from costly acci- 
dents, imperfect work and belated contracts that the 
drink habit causes, many firms are compelled to carry 
a surplus of "hands," merely to be in readiness to sub- 
stitute those who may be off on account of drink. 
Eradicate the drink habit and it is safe to say, there are 
many concerns which could increase their employees' 
wages and then make more money than is possible when 
having a lot of drinking men in their employ. 

It is impossible to suggest any condition that can 
justify the advisability of sanctioning the drink habit in 
any form. Everything aside from the employment it 
renders those who manufacture it, and its uses for medi- 
cal purposes, is most injurious to mankind. The environ- 
ments of the drink habit can never be made anything 
other than degrading; it is a traffic which is chiefly 
supported by the lowest instincts of man. Any one de- 
siring to aid in elevating the working classes above the 
misery of poverty, that will in any way excuse the drink 
habit in employees, is nearly as inconsistent as one who 
might be making every effort to save a drowning per- 
son, but would instruct the sinking one to drink when 
under water. 

In order to further display the great evils of the 
drink habit along with other creators of poverty and 
the need of encouraging the increase of passion for good 
homes and all the respectability that accompany them, 
we show for a contrast the illustrations of homes seen 
on pages 25 and 57, situated in the thriving town of 
Sharpsville, Pennsylvania. In the yard of the first 
we have beer barrels, and in the others flowers and 
shrubbery. The view on page 25 was taken on a house- 
cleaning day. Beds and other household goods were 
placed out of doors for airing as shown at "A." The 
house is a double one of ten rooms and the men live in 
the first half, with the landlord and his wife, shown at 
"B"and"C." 

About two years ago, 35 men, who employed two 
women as housekeepers, lived in one of these five room 



CAUSES AND EXTENT OF POVERTY 153 

compartments ; half of the number working days and the 
other half nights. Their existing as they do can be 
charged to their being un- Americanized, but more to their 
waste of money in purchasing beer and other intoxi- 
cants. The men are hard workers and receive now, 
(1905,) $1.60 per day of ten hours' work. This amount 
of wages is more than the owners of the home seen on 
page 25 received on an average during the working 
period of their industrious lives. It is to be said, that 
not only do these common laborers, Mr. John Mylatt 
and Mr. Michael Guyton, own their beautiful homes, but 
have also other valuable property, and each is the 
parent of 9 to 11 children. If they had prized beer 
more than respectability, they would not have been the 
great credit to their families and benefit to their country 
that they are to-day. These examples of industry of 
which there are others in Sharpsville and most all lo- 
calities, demonstrate what some men receiving but com- 
mon laborer's wages may do with the aid of a good man- 
aging wife in a country like the United States. 

It is noble to extend charity to the weak and worthy, 
but to tolerate any unnecessary factors which encourage 
the making of paupers is a grievous error. We need 
greatly a plain presentation of facts and a fearlessness 
in setting forth the conditions that are necessary to lift 
and sustain man above poverty and pauperism. There 
would not exist to-day a single being in the world, liv- 
ing other than in slums or hovels, and all that is great 
and grand through the efforts of energetic men would 
never have been created, had all the prosperous people 
of the past practiced as they could have more easily, 
indolence, shiftlessness and intemperance which are now 
so prevalent in the ranks of the poor to such an uncalled 
for extent. 

With tolerance for indolence, waste, drink and dissipa- 
tion impunged by industrious, saving people, and thrift 
and energy, or all that which comprises competency 
substituted, the problem of abolishing wretched poverty 
and pauperism would be greatly solved. 



CHAPTER XV 

Restraining the Evils of Drinking and Excessive 
Indulgence 

There is no vice more injurious to the welfare and 
competency of man than the habit of drinking. It would 
be a great blessing to mankind were it possible to annul 
the manufacture of all intoxicants. Its use injures in- 
dustry as well as the home and almost every one can 
perceive evidences of its evil in the home, but few its in- 
jury to business and preventing the making of com- 
petent workers. 

Nature never made such criminals, fools or slaves of 
men and women as intoxicants can create. Nature's 
fools are entitled to sympathy, but drunken fools, none. 
However, they can get to be such slaves of passion for 
drink as to illicit pity for their helplessness. Men and 
women can be found who will lie and steal and even 
sell the honor of their helpmates and children, to ob- 
tain drink, when its craving seizes them. It is a terrible 
condition for people to allow themselves to drift into. 
Example of the drink degradation to be seen almost 
everywhere should be an awful warning to youths. 

It sounds well for adults to boast of their ability to 
take a glass and then drink no more, but where there is 
one able to do this there are many not self -mastered and 
unable to do so. The risks such run incurring an ap- 
petite for intoxicants are so great that all tipplers can- 
not use too much precaution lest it gets beyond their 
control. There have been too many shocking examples 
of the overpowering control which intoxicants have 
gained over individuals for any to advocate, as some do, 
that it is but a question of will power to stop drinking at 
any time when one sees fit. 

The one that continues tippling when he finds a desire 
for drink to be constantly increasing, should stop while 
his will power is stronger than the appetite. To say 
one can take a drink or leave it alone is not so much 



RESTRAINING THE EVILS OF EXCESS 155 

to vaunt about, as to say "I do not drink anything" 
and stand true to such a declaration. The bartender, who 
is so surrounded with intoxicants that he could take a 
bath in them if he chooses, but refuses to take a drink, is 
to be respected for his strength of will power. It is 
very easy for one to exult about his virtues when he 
has never been tempted, but those in the midst of 
temptation who resist their influences, are the most 
worthy of praise for their possession of virtues. 

It is glorious to possess sufficient will power to re- 
sist any temptation to err. As free moral agents some 
are blessed with more force of character or will power 
than others, nevertheless, there are few aside from im- 
beciles, who should not, with proper discipline, be able 
to develop sufficient will power to resist beginning to drink 
or doing any evil when it appeals to them as unwise and 
youths should keep in mind that it exemplifies manhood 
to stand against temptations. Because one may see fit 
to hang himself is no reason another may do so. 

No one is justified in blaming others for his drink ap- 
petite and all should learn to rely upon their own 
strength. The practice of teaching youths to look to 
other powers and resources than their own for support in 
resisting temptations has often done more harm than 
good. Teach and train man to rely upon himself and 
he will not be deceived or disappointed nearly as much 
as when relying upon others. This is in keeping with 
all other affairs of life wherein if people wish anything 
done well, they must look after its doing themselves. 
There is more reliance to be placed on those with 
wills of their own than on those that look to temper- 
ance societies and the like with their pledges, for sup- 
port. 

So many are brought up to be so forgetful of their own 
individuality and power of will, that it causes many 
to wonder why there are not more drunkards and law- 
less individuals than now exists. The training neces- 
sary to make youths self-willed in doing what is moral 
and right is dependent chiefly upon home influences. 



156 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

If, with the drink habit, the father or mother is a 
tipler they cannot expect to have much influence in 
swaying their children from drinking. It would have 
been far better for some youths had their parents gone 
to the extreme of delirium tremens than to have set an 
example of tippling, or moderate drinking as some call 
it, as the suffering and awful example of seeing a parent 
ruin a happy home, or go to a drunkard's grave should 
cause almost all children to forswear ever drinking a 
drop. It is a great risk to keep intoxicants in the homes 
of young children. 

When youths arrive near maturity and have developed 
will power as they should to use their own discretion, 
then parents or guardians may more safely exhibit liquor 
in their homes, as at this age, if minors cannot be trusted 
to do what is right by their parents or guardians when 
their backs are turned, their case is very hopeless. 
Youths of twenty years, who cannot be left to rely upon 
themselves without parents always coaching them, have 
either been trained very badly or possess a disposition 
that is so depraved that a little if any power could in- 
fluence them to do right. 

There are few if any evils which should command so 
much effort and precaution on the part of parents or 
guardians, to shield children against, as tippling. The 
best way to have control of such evils is for parents to 
set right examples and possess the love of their children. 

In taking up the question of intoxicants injuring 
business, it is to be said that such has no doubt cost 
employers as much, if not more, than all makers and sell- 
ers of intoxicants have gained wealth by its manufacture ; 
and which, in most countries, amounts to millions every 
year. This great loss to employers is chiefly due to ac- 
cidents, mistakes, inferior work and delays in complet- 
ing contracts. Not only are these great losses hard to bear 
and in some cases been the cause of failures, but such 
that many employers would cheerfully sacrifice their 
losses could it only annul the terrible worries and em- 
barrassments that imbibing intoxicants cause them. 



RESTRAINING THE EVILS OF EXCESS 157 

When business is prosperous and help scarce nearly all 
drinkers take such as a license to more than ever harass 
and perplex employers. There are few things more dis- 
couraging to an employer that has his books filled with 
orders, many of which may exact forfeitures or lose him 
trade if not finished on time, than to see some of his 
men half drunk at their work and many jobs standing 
idle awaiting the return of others that are off on a 
drunken spree. When one that has all his life's hard 
earnings at stake, in a plant that is held responsible for 
filling of contracts and getting out good work, is forced 
to look upon a lot of drinking men, is he not justified 
in asking what right such inebriates have to the protec- 
tion and support of those that help carry the responsi- 
bilities necessary to maintain business, the foundation 
of civilization? If every person was as unqualified to 
assume responsibilities as are inebriates, all industry 
would soon cease and cause starvation to take its place. 
When one thinks of the unworthy support and encour- 
agement that the drink habit receives from some, it is 
very apt to make many class such abettors as being no 
better than inebriates themselves. 

Some employers take the stand that they will not hold 
any one in their employ that loses time in any way 
through drinking. It is a position all employers should 
take, that find it at all possible to do so, but which un- 
fortunately some are not always able to do. The stand 
of not holding any drinking employees in employment 
has no doubt done more to cause many to cease drink- 
ing than any other influence that was brought to bear 
upon them. 

Recent statistics of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor 
shows that investigation of 413 establishments, in more 
than 40 cities and towns showed that out of 39,761 for 
an average of those that work on Saturdays, 1,614 would 
be absent on Monday, 1,103 would be absent on account 
of sickness or loafing, and 511 would be chargeable to 
drunkenness, giving a percentage of 1.29 for drinking. 
The percentage varied from 0.32, in Lowell, with weav- 



158 , THE COMPETENT LIFE 

ers, to 7 per cent in Quincy, with granite-workers on 
account of drink. These statistics are interesting in 
showing the great difference that exists, and the im- 
provement that can be made by employers taking a 
strong stand against engaging any unable to resist the 
drink habit which causes such losses of time. 

Many drink because they think they can and not be- 
cause they must like the poor unfortunate sot, as is 
evinced by advantage many take of prosperous times to 
stay off work to drink when they think it will be tol- 
erated because of the scarcity of operatives. In dull 
times many endeavor to hold their positions when drink- 
ing, by sending poor looking parents, wives or children 
to plead for their return. To realize that innocent 
women and children must suffer because of man's drink 
habit is another one of the great injuries that has often 
to be tolerated and for which there seems little redress 
at present, although it is hoped that there will be less 
intemperance as time will advance and that the future 
may have means in store to protect the innocent or weak 
against the curse of drink and make the guilty suffer. 

Some years back the vanity of many weak minds was 
flattered by the accepted sentiment, ' ' all good mechanics 
drink,'' in other words meant to say, that in order to 
be a good artisan one must drink. More absurd ideas 
never existed. The drink habit never assisted any one 
to become a competent worker, nor has it helped to hold 
good skilled workers in a position, and thanks to prog- 
ress, the day has passed for any one to expect censure 
for not tolerating such absurdities. When drink is in, 
wits are out, and man loses his balance, mentally and 
physically. He is no more competent to be trusted 
with anything requiring judgment, skill and care, than 
an unfortunate imbecile child; although many when 
"half full" think they are giants in intellect or a 
powerful Atlas in ability to hold the world. 

Too much charity has been extended to drinkers 
and inebriates. It has been that kind of charity that 
does more harm than good. Many take the pledge or 



RESTRAINING THE EVILS OF EXCESS 159 

join temperance societies at the solicitation of friends, 
who influence them by petting, but as soon as they feel 
neglected, break their pledges in order to again be 
pampered. If the standard of manhood was as it should 
be, all would be compelled to find props within them- 
selves by the use of their own strength and there would 
be less renewing of pledges practiced. This remedy 
would work similar to the case of the wife who had an 
indolent husband and who to avoid work, would feign 
to have fits; suspecting his game, she said when he 
once fell in front of her, "I wish you would not fall in 
my way." The wife had to say this but once. The 
thought that she, his wife, could be so heartless, brought 
him to realize that he could pose no longer on Burns' 
maxim, c ' A man 's a man for a ' that. ' ' A man who will 
be untrue to himself will be so to others. 

Excess in any habit is generally harmful and ruin- 
ous to man 's welfare. It may be overwork or insufficient 
exercise, overeating or too little food, too much sleep 
or not enough, also immoderate practice of smoking and 
chewing. Some can endure more indulgence and dissipa- 
tion than others, but, when any feel such to injure them 
in the least, they should be able to restrain themselves. 
The man that can control himself need not have any in- 
jurious vices, as those considered such by many, may 
often prove conducive to his comfort and happiness. All 
things are good in their places, when they can be judi- 
ciously used, and nearly all our habits may become vices, 
from the fact that there are few but that can be abused 
by over-indulgence, if we do not practice self-control. 

Even the soda fountain, to which men can happily ac- 
company women, can be abused, but it is better to misuse 
this privilege than that of obtaining intoxicants. Every 
effort should be made to turn people from hard to soft 
drinks, and the soda fountain should be made as fas- 
cinating as possible, for the more it can draw trade from 
the "pot house" or saloons, the better for the happiness 
of home and all industry. 

If in starting to use intoxicating drinks, such bever 



160 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

age could only be obtained in some isolated room, having 
but a plain rough pine bar and shelves, in place of pol- 
ished mahogany and brilliant glass to enchant a cus- 
tomer, there would be less to allure men onward to create 
appetites by the social glass. On page 161 is shown a 
dingy, desolate looking bar wholly devoid of having 
beer, liquors, bottles or glassware of any kind in sight 
except when being passed to a drinker. 

If all saloonkeepers were compelled to keep a uni- 
form kind of unattractive wide open bars, it would lessen 
the evils of drink to a great extent. For example : If the 
^Waldorf Astorias were compelled to have for a bar room 
the same quality of apartments as would be found in 
a poverty cave, it would be seen at once that the lack of 
allurements would result in fewer habitual drinkers. 
The attractive environments of the saloon, and seductive 
social conditions are responsible for a large amount of 
the intemperate use of drink today. Intemperance par- 
takes of the brutal and is evidence of unbridled passion 
and appetite, and when it is permitted to enslave a man 
the slave should be compelled to accept with his drink 
the conditions about him which are as revolting as the 
habit he cannot control. 

The author is aware of the fact that his theories are 
quite opposite to those of the venerable clergyman of 
New York who felt led to open a saloon with religious 
rite, because of his conviction that an attractive place of 
a certain social standing would lessen the evils of the 
drink habit. The writer is no clergyman, but merely 
an employer of men, who has come up from the bottom, 
and speaks with the experience of years in which he has 
seen the greatest human wrecks caused through the 
over-indulgence in strong drink, and is free to say that 
it is one of the most dangerous enemies to society today. 
The short life of the famous "Subway Tavern " in New 
York has proven its impracticability, and should enforce 
the fact that reformation cannot begin by dressing in 
pleasing appearance the greatest enemy there is to home 
and workshop. 



CHAPTER XVI 

The Debt of Parents and Importance of Winning 
Children's Affections 

Among the conditions for which youths are not 
responsible and because of which many of life's most 
serious results are encountered, is that of having parent- 
age thrust upon beings who have no choice in their selec- 
tion. 

While civilization does not appear to be man's natural 
state, it gives him little release from the obligation of 
affording to each new life brought into the world treat- 
ment suited to its best good and highest needs. Nature 
in propagating its kind rarely if ever fails to give to 
it in all phases of life, uniform treatment. 

One of the criminal conditions of society for which no 
remedy has yet been offered, is the tendency with many 
to assume larger responsibilities in the family than can 
be justly carried out. Whether this is due to thought- 
less or uncontrollable gratification of passion or the re- 
sult of ignorance on the part of parents who do not 
know what is involved in the begetting of children, is a 
question which some may well ask. 

It is, however, very important that the poor and un- 
trained classes should be made to perceive the responsi- 
bilities of parentage, and they should be taught that 
they cannot, in justice to themselves, their home or their 
country, bring into this world human lives for which 
they cannot furnish proper care and training. On 
the other hand, it is quite as criminal to be unwilling to 
assume obligations of parenthood when well able to do 
so. The best interest and life of our race requires 
us to propagate our kind, and our obligations to it alone 
demand that all those of fair and high intelligence fulfill 
their duties. The evading of this responsibility by the 
higher classes, so called, is criminal and is in a measure 
responsible for a social condition that should be remedied. 



164 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

Because of the anxiety and special care involved the able 
providers should not turn from the path nature has 
opened to humanity, through which if it will but pass, 
can find the highest and best end of existence. 

"A poor man for children and the rich for luck," is 
better than ''race suicide." But what is needed is more 
children for the lucky and a kindergarten to raise them 
to manhood, for those that cannot prevent the influences 
of wealth or false pride rearing youths for other than 
the leisured class. 

Is it any wonder that there are so many of low means 
and humanity made to suffer for the want of higher 
development in man when those who should have chil- 
dren leave it to those least fitted to do so. As one illus- 
tration of prolificness, it is said that it is not uncom- 
mon to find families of twelve to fourteen and the aver- 
age over six for all, on the East Side of New York, when 
many possessing the intellect and ability to live on Fifth 
avenue have none. 

When all conditions are considered it is plain why we 
cannot expect at present other than great deficiency in 
the training and ability of large numbers, as well as to 
perceive that we have ample means to supply most any 
demand for the existence and development of intelligence 
in mankind if we will but utilize them. 
# # # 

Many seem to rear children with the idea that they 
should start in as early as possible to aid partially if 
not wholly to support their parents. This is proper 
and right if the parents have been unfortunate in busi- 
ness or health, or otherwise disabled so that they could 
not labor steadily to provide properly for the rearing 
of their children and themselves. Where parents are 
so situated that no one is to blame but themselves if they 
are not independent of others, when their children be- 
come adults, they are not generally justified in consider- 
ing their offspring under any great obligation to render 
them financial support. Parents are ever debtors to their 
children for having brought them into the world and they 



THE DEBT OF PARENTS 167 

can pay this debt only by rearing them so they can make 
an honest living for themselves and be in a position to 
help their parents in their old age if need be. 

Many parents seem to believe that children should de- 
vote all their earnings to the "old home'' and be con- 
tented to stay there as long as they live. If this idea 
prevailed with all, one generation could close man's 
career. Nature demands that man shall perpetuate his 
kind, and as the progeny of all living creatures leave 
the guardianship of their parental abodes to build for 
themselves and be independent of their progenitors, so 
should man. 

Some parents would have all concede that it was for 
the sole interest of their children that they cling to them 
as long as they can. If such parents would closely an- 
alyze their desires they would find them founded chiefly 
upon selfishness. If it is best for a youth to leave his 
home in order to obtain a position that will give him 
independence or good livelihood, true parental love will 
gladly sacrifice its yearnings, no matter how much a 
home may be broken, or memories carried back to the ties 
that bind. 

There is the greatest necessity for early separation 
of youths and parents in villages and small towns on 
account of there being much less opportunity for the 
young there than in cities. The rearing of youths to 
play the gentleman in small places, instead of encour- 
aging their getting out to obtain work, has ruined many 
lives that might otherwise have been a great credit to 
themselves solely through indiscreet love of parents, 
of which a mother's love is the harder to sacrifice. All 
must perceive that the majority of unliberated youths, 
provided with a little spending money and good clothes, 
in order that parents may keep them home, amount to 
very little in being able to properly provide for them- 
selves when the day comes for them to do so. 

The excuse that a youth might be led astray were he 
liberated is often heard. If there is really danger of 
such occurrence, the parents may often find themselves 



168 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

responsible, as it is one of their chief duties to rear a 
child so he will be able to resist evil practices, no 
matter how strong the allurements to lead him astray. 
Such training is most essential and the parents that 
cannot trust children out of their sight as they approach 
maturity, have either failed woefully in training them 
rightly, or they are so depraved that no influences can 
control their actions. 

To train children so they can be trusted, calls for 
good example and liberality on the part of the parents, 
especially the father. If the father is indolent, a loiterer, 
wasteful, immoral, or has the liquor habit, he cannot ex- 
pect his son to be all that a man should be. On the other 
hand, should the father be most industrious, thrifty, 
moral and temperate, but so confine a son, giving him 
little freedom, he is rearing a child that is liable to go 
wrong when he can obtain his liberty. Such trained chil- 
dren can be likened to man's good friend, the dog, who, 
when liberated after a long confinement knows no 
bounds. The best men come from unshackled youths 
guided and controlled by good example, liberal direc- 
tion and advice, having full confidence in the love and 
intent of their parents. 

While the debts of some parents are great and some 
pay them with compound interest, there are some who ex- 
pect too much in return from their children. When 
adults branch out for themselves, they have their own 
homes to build and care for, and in battling for such 
the parents should remember that their childreu cannot 
always find the time or opportunity to pay them the at- 
tention expected. The child at a distance who goes to 
the parents' abode when in sickness or trouble, or ex- 
hibits frequently his love and esteem by mail when not 
actually needed at his "old home," is paying good hom- 
age to a worthy parent. To expect children at a distance, 
as some do, to be constantly attentive in the manner one 
could were they near by and had little to do, is in many 
cases demanding too much. 

The worthy parent's greatest support and reward lies 



THE DEBT OF PARENTS 169 

in the knowledge and gratification of having reared chil- 
dren in respectability and fitting them to fill responsible 
positions which will permit their taking creditable care of 
themselves. In doing this the debt of a parent is paid, 
and the responsibility of the young making a success of 
life lies then with themselves. 

There has been too much mock modesty practiced by 
parents in the past. They should not withhold that 
which children are liable to learn from others, as the 
innocence of ignorance can be most readily turned to 
lead them astray. Children should be instructed in the 
processes of plant life, and finally led to under- 
stand nature's way of creating man and other forms of 
life. Our insane asylums and reformatories present sad 
evidences of the danger that lies in parents withholding 
that which will permit youths having a right concep- 
tion of their own physiological functions, and all should 
labor to hasten the day when such education will be 
conceded as correct practice. 

As soon as youths are old enough to comprehend right 
from wrong, do not compel them to attend every Sun- 
day School session and neglect taking them to visit 
asylums, prisons, and museums of anatomy. Let boys 
and girls at the proper age under good guidance, see 
the results of evil doing, as well as the good and they 
will more fully realize the significance of moral advice 
and the consequence of evil practices. This subject is 
treated further in chapter XXIII. 

It is not to be inferred from the above remarks on 
Sunday schools, that we do not encourage their work. 
The contrary is our position. The Sunday School has 
done and will ever do great good in helping youths in at- 
taining efficiency and stands in close touch with the 
church in helping the home and overseer of labor to 
create respectability and efficiency in man. So powerful 
are the influences of the church in this respect that every 
proprietor, president, manager, superintendent, foreman 
and self-respecting citizen should contribute to their sup- 



170 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

port, whether they attend church or can believe their 

creed or not. 

# # # 

No parents can rightly control children who do not 
hold their confidence and sympathy. To possess these a 
parent must first win a child's affection in early child- 
hood, this effort in turn begets its confidence and sym- 
pathy. Many parents give no thought or labor to 
win a child's affection or confidence, and act in the be- 
lief that because they are their own flesh and blood, they 
can be called upon at any hour or age to serve their 
wishes. While children are closer than strangers, the 
latter may often render more sympathy and confidence 
than the former, as it is largely a question of the affec- 
tions, and which must be won by the parent,, as the 
lover wins a companion for life. When a parent has 
won a child's love, every precaution should be used to 
not let such be lost, as merely being the parent does not 
signify such as impossible. The parent or guardian who 
holds the love of children will as a rule find them ever 
more ready to be guided by their advice or render them 
assistance when in need than otherwise. 

It is not uncommon to observe incidents of parents 
passing through tribulations wholly neglected by their 
children, who, had they been brought up close to them 
in their early days would not have disregarded their 
parents' trials. When neglected children attain man- 
hood and are forced to battle for themselves, it is not 
many years before the ambitious or careworn awaken to 
realize the deficiency of their parents' training, and all 
such cannot have the same respect and love for their 
parents they otherwise would have had. There exists 
in this a debt that the parent has not paid and while 
the creditors may compromise, they can never forget the 
balance due them. Being simply a parent is not suffi- 
cient, we must be a benefactor as well if we wish to hold 
the love, respect and confidence of our children. Those 
who labor to obtain full control of children 's doings will 
find that their greatest task lies not in their cultivating 



THE DEBT OF PARENTS 171 

good morals, but more in directing them to attain ef- 
ficiency. This is best achieved by leading instead of 
driving, as by displaying the ' ' whip hand ' ' the influence 
of love is lost and the task becomes so great as to often 
annul the strongest efforts to attain the object sought. 

Wealthy parents find it harder to engage the earnest, 
enthusiastic support of their children in assisting them 
to attain competency than the poor or middle classes. 
This is due because the necessity to make self-denials and 
assume hard tasks is not so apparent to them, also be- 
cause of having plenty the parent has not the adversity 
to exact sympathy from children, which is a great factor 
to win and hold their affections as many can testify. 

It is generally a hard task for step-parents or guard- 
ians to have the right influence in the directing of chil- 
dren for the reason the children are more susceptible 
to outside gossip and influences to guide them against 
doing what the step-parent or guardian thought best in 
their interests. An own parent may chastise a child most 
severely, if necessary to make it do right, and be endorsed 
by outsiders, but let the step-parent or guardian attempt 
anything nearly as severe and some outsiders are gen- 
erally sure to try to prejudice the child's mind against 
doing what was thought best in its interests. 

The highest hope for orphans, step-parents or guard- 
ians lies in their being close ties of affection between 
them, and it is not impossible for step-parents or guard- 
ians to win the affection of children as can true parents. 
The labor will for some be much more difficult and dis- 
couraging, but with perseverance such may succeed suf- 
ficiently to secure a child's co-operation in attaining 
what is best for its welfare. The lot of step-parents or 
guardians is at the best a discouraging and often a thank- 
less task and outsiders should be most guarded how they 
interfere, as such can easily ruin the discipline necessary 
to the child's best interests in leading it to grow up to 
be a good, moral, competent person. 

It is a beautiful and inspiring sight to witness adults 
who seem drawn to their parents or guardians as if by a 



172 THE COMPETENT L1FB 

magnet, to fondly caress them every time they meet. 
They are "two hearts that beat as one," and when the 
parent or guardian that by any means has so entwined 
the cords of a child's affection with his own, so that ad- 
vancement in years cannot sever them, it is then generally 
their own fault if they did not judiciously shape their 
course to obtain that competency which will not only 
make them well able to provide for themselves but also 
for their parents or guardians if need be when aged or 
infirm. 

One can often see a parent or guardian showing 
greater affection or attention to one child than others. 
This may be due to the special favored child having 
the greatest affection for them, or some infirmity which 
excites their sympathy. If the latter, a parent's special 
attention may be justified, but in this great precaution 
is necessary as many youths have failed to become com- 
petent workers or gone astray simply because they felt- 
no one cared for them. If sympathy and love cannot 
be had from a parent or guardian who are they to expect 
it from ? Without it many souls lose heart while striv- 
ing for that which they should attain. 

All parents or guardians should possess large hearts, 
such as can be divided among a dozen children if need be, 
and the division should be so equal that not one child 
can be made to feel that he had not his share. The 
parent or guardian can have and hold the love of chil- 
dren best when their offspring witness earnest labor and 
sacrifice in their behalf, and the greater the adversity 
of those who struggle for their children's interests or 
betterment, the stronger should be the ties which bind 
child to parent, and thus proper assistance is rendered to 
make the child moral and competent in life. 



CHAPTER XVII 
Acquisition and Injury of Baneful Traits and Habits 

Almost all people have some peculiar traits or habits 
which affect their lives for good or evil. We often hear 
those commended that are creditable, while those that 
are baneful will, if referred to at all, be in the most 
guarded manner by impassionate persons, lest they that 
it injure should take offense and break friendship with 
the critic. 

Many pass their whole lives suffering censure, penal- 
ties and losses due to baneful peculiarities, that a few 
friendly words of caution, never spoken, might have pre- 
vented. Could we see ourselves as others see us, it would 
greatly decrease injurious traits and assist many to pos- 
sess balanced temperaments, the possession of which is 
very essential to aid success and comfort to life. 

Baneful traits may be found in the arbitrary, the 
braggart, the deceitful, the gossip, hector, loiterer and 
sloven ; the snippish, sullen, penurious, uncharitable and 
unsophisticated. While the last is a trait to display art- 
lessness, often better called ignorance, it can foster pe- 
culiarities in one's character that may often prevent 
their rising to desired positions in society or business 
and comes largely from the lack of a broad intelligence 
or thoughtfulness. Such artlessness is often exhibited in 
an insipid laugh, an ungainly walk, a languid or silly 
pose, or senseless swing of the body or arms, and de- 
velops dispositions to prevent one's knowing when to be 
seen or heard, or to do the right thing at the right time ; 
in fact, cause actions rarely if ever seen in an unassum- 
ing, sensible, bright person. 

How are we to learn of our defects when others are 
guarding us from information about ourselves. It is of 
course natural to expect our parents, teacher or bosses to 
inform us of our bad practices, but as a rule too many 
pay little heed to admonishing when necessary, from 



174 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

fear of censure. Then again in growing to maturity 
some have found that their parents were too unsophis- 
ticated themselves to help them, and came to learn when 
too late, that had they been less so it might have served 
to make success in place of failures which finally opened 
their eyes, to see where the injury lies. 

It is evident in many cases that people will never 
learn of their faults, especially their worst ones, if they 
wait to hear others comment openly on them. However 
if we will but admit to ourselves that we must have some 
faults and not ignore any hints, indirect criticisms or 
open censure of them, we may in a short time be able to 
correct them, providing we go earnestly about such a 
task. It is to be said that there are those who have 
greatly benefited themselves by undertaking it. 

One has always more faults when young than when 
old. This is due to the fact that in living we learn, but 
the earlier we do so the better for us. As much effort 
should be made to correct our baneful traits and habits, 
as in striving to be skilled in some vocation, for such im- 
perfections can often be stumbling blocks to ever pre- 
vent our being able to master the calling we aim to 
follow. 

The fitness of applicants for situations are more easily 
judged of by experienced employers than many think 
possible, and altogether too many can be classed by 
overseers of labor as being ''bums," conceited persons, 
"don't cares," 'fops," "granny grunts," laggards," 
"smart alecks," "sports," or too pompous to think 
much of any thing other than themselves. These char- 
acteristics are more or less baneful traits among others 
that could in many cases have been cured by proper 
training in early youth. The great secret of ridding 
one's self of the traits and habits that are continually 
working injury lies in first being awakened to their ex- 
istence ; second, in having sufficient good sense to concede 
it important to remedy them ; and third, in making every 
effort to do so. 

Baneful traits may be hereditary, and, again, they 



ACQUISITION OF BANEFUL TRAITS 175 

may be the fostered fangs of habit, that never being re- 
leased become a second nature to their thoughtless victim. 
From the cradle to manhood we are ever forming 
habits of some kind or other. Any act done by habit is 
easier than if by compulsion. If habit did not make 
many things so easy of execution, we would soon die of 
exhaustion. Then again ' * The chain of habit coils itself 
around the heart like a serpent, to gnaw and stifle it." 
Mr. Hazlett in saying this had in mind the curse of bane- 
ful habits, and which, owing to there being bad, are easier 
of formation than good ones, but the great error rests in 
agreeing fully with Crabbe that 

1 ' Habit with him was all the test of truth ; 
It must be right : I 've done it from my youth. ' ' 

If habits formed in youth were all good, then the quo- 
tation from Crabbe would call for little reformation in 
adults. Hannah Moore says, 

"Small habits well pursued betimes, 
May reach the dignity of crimes." 

This can make us fearful of the quotation from Dryden, 

' ' All habits gather by unseen degrees, 
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. ' ' 

To refrain from acquiring baneful habits requires ex- 
ertions to guide and control oneself. The necessity for 
such effort comes largely of man's nature seeking to be 
free and unrestrained, where if alone in the world he 
could do no harm, but the moment he mingles with his 
fellows, he has others' sensibilities and rights to con- 
sider, as well as his own, in order that all may live peace- 
fully and profitably together. So important is such 
recognition that certain custom and usages are estab- 
lished and regulated by laws and social etiquette. The 
individual cannot ignore or break any law or custom 
without effecting or injuring others. Our laws and 
customs are framed by bodies that are elected by com- 



176 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

Hiunities to study what is best to protect public rights 
and freedom. These bodies consider and govern every 
act that is possible of control, and compliance with their 
ruling compels the individual to consider the welfare 
of others' interests as well as his own. 

Could constitutional and social bodies enact laws and 
customs which would prevent individuals from abusing 
themselves as much as they do from abusing others there 
would be a great decrease in baneful traits and habits. 

A study of the conditions governing the acts of men 
and women show most forcibly that where they are un- 
restrained many are often their own worst enemy, and 
have yet to learn that where laws and customs are pow- 
erless to govern them they should not let license for free- 
dom cause a disregard for possible modification or sup- 
pression of baneful traits and habits, that if fostered 
can imperil the making of good, moral or competent 
lives. 

While we have no intention of setting forth here the 
good habits that should be developed, it being more our 
part to call attention to the bad, we will state that there 
are few people but who know of the good that should 
exist, and every effort should be put forth to make the 
doing of the good as much a habit as is exerted in making 
such of the bad. There are two good habits that should 
be fostered above nearly all others, one the habit of 
working, the other the habit of saving. We have given 
much space in advocating the making of the worker, and 
will only take space here to say that for the latter, the 
practice of some having little savings banks in their home 
for their children is to be highly commended. Sway the 
child's trend of mind into the habit of saving its pennies 
and when it reaches the age of maturity the habit will 
continue and carry the adult onward, providing for the 
"rainy day," and thereby helping to make him a good, 
responsible and worthy citizen. 

# # # 

Man's inheritance of vanity, to display and support 
his self-importance were exhibited in the savages, who 



ACQUISITION OF BANEFUL TRAITS 179 

decorated with paint, plumage and ornaments; similar 
as is the pomp and arrogance of some aristocrats. There 
are those of this class who would if they could, to appease 
their vanity, sit up on a throne and compel the masses 
to serve and worship them as did monarchs in ages past. 
The same spirit is sometimes displayed by people 
of moderate means who, when very poor, were constantly 
"railing" about the snobbish actions and arrogance of 
some wealthy people, but when they became well-to-do 
themselves were more than conspicuous for like offences. 
Such people render little if any aid in the uplifting of 
man. Some live as if all things were created especially 
for them, and if they do not obtain their desire it is be- 
cause they cannot exert sufficient power to compel all to 
bend to their will. Some are so vain and selfish that 
they forget that they are but one of many millions, who 
have a right to exist and enjoy the blessings of this 
world, or fail to consider that were they the only beings 
on this earth there are other planets revolving in the 
vastness of space which must be considered as well as 
their habitation, by the omnipotent power in nature. 

The less vanity and arrogance the greater the soul to 
consider the welfare of others, or enact that worthy of 
commendation by true manhood. The vanity of some 
causes them to think that the world owes them a living, 
and if such did not mature easily to give them the best in 
life they would not scruple to cheat, steal or murder to 
get it. 

Vanity fosters qualities in many that are very injur- 
ious to their advancement. If it were possible for us not 
to falsely assume qualities of greatness in social, political, 
scientific, industrial or other achievements, without being 
severely ridiculed at most every turn and greatly ostra- 
cized socially, we would find much greater honesty of 
purpose and effort to be natural in all our thoughts and 
acts. Assumption and affectation in manners, speech or 
actions cannot achieve commendable results; only true 
merit can do this. The labor and energy it costs to falsely 
assume greatness is little compared to what its true pos- 



180 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

session demands. In this fact we find another reason for 
the wisdom of encouraging and developing the worker in 
man, one that will do things with a pleasure and seek 
no credit not honestly due him. If there is pleasure in 
assumption or affectation, how much greater must that 
pleasure be when positions and honors are honestly 
merited. The doctor of medicine who, after years of 
hard study and research, comes to so thoroughly under- 
stand his profession that he can overcome disease if at 
all curable, must take greater pleasure out of life than 
the quack, whose assumption of ability or greatness 
would fail if tested. These weaknesses of vanity are not 
tolerated in the sports of life. Here contest must decide 
ability. The best horse, the best team, or the best fighter 
is not credited such until proven so. How much better it 
would be for the advancement of all other affairs of life 
were it possible to have our claims to superiority or merit 
tested, as with the sports of life, before we could cater 
for or expect any recognition of greatness. While this 
is not so practical, we can by cultivating a universal 
spirit to discourage assumption and affectation, consorts 
of vanity, whenever found, do much good in assisting to 
create the better man. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
Traits Detrimental to Competency and Their Remedy 

In the fourth chapter there are cited thirty-three 
reasons for refusing to accept operatives who should 
have been competent to fill a certain responsible posi- 
tion, and, as an explanation of these reasons would be 
instructive to many in connection with the previous 
chapter, we are led to present such in an independent 
form. 

In the discussion of the various traits of incompetency 
to be noted, it will be unnecessary to say anything fur- 
ther about the physical inabilities, other than to assert 
it is an obligation we owe to our employer as well as 
ourselves to see to it that we are as well and capable 
physically, as nature has fitted us to be. 

In the discussion of the mental and moral imperfec- 
tions, our attention is first called to the evil of DRINK, 
which is also treated in previous chapters. 

First Any persons addicted to the habit of 

drinking offer no assurance whatever that they can 
ever be depended upon. They are generally not on hand 
when most needed and when working are liable to be half 
intoxicated or not have a ' ' level head ' ' much of the time, 
thereby doing poor work or making blunders which are 
often very expensive or ruinous to an employer. It is 
part of competency to be relied upon for steadiness as 
much as for skill. When an employer is crowded with 
work and all his customers are ' ' railing ' ' at him to get it 
out under risk of losing trade and money; or perhaps 
worse — going into bankruptcy through the injury drunk- 
enness can cause— he is made to suffer such keen vexa- 
tion and anxiety as to force him to believe that the drink 
habit is the most abominable and harassing enemy to 
business and the greatest loss-creator that man can in- 
flict upon an employer. 



182 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

Second The SPORT rarely makes a com- 
petent worker, for while he may be skilled or talented, 
his mind is too often led into other channels and away 
from the service for which he is paid. The sport at his 
best can scarcely give serious thought to his tasks and 
shows little promise of making an earnest capable work- 
er. As a man cannot serve two masters, he should aim 
to be the full sport and get his living thereby, otherwise 
he will more likely be an imposter in exacting pay for 
service he cannot render. 

The question can be asked if civilization could exist 
if people were all a body of temperate incompetents, 
any more than if all were a lot of drunkards and sports ? 
With all being drunkards and sports, there would be 
greater depravity and chicanery in fighting for the sur- 
vival of the brute in man, and a shorter existence of 
civilization, for the reason that drinking and sporting 
would bring the quickest destruction, for no matter what 
other good qualities one may ha^e, these two baneful 
habits would annul them. However, to the praise of 
those who carry the burden necessary to civilization, 
there is hope that proper education and training will 
hasten the day when degenerates and incompetent work- 
ers who could and should be otherwise, will have cause 
to feel that their maintenance is due to tolerance and 
mercy on the part of responsible competents, who, unlike 
the working bees, do not kill the drones. 

Third THE LACK OF CONFIDENCE often 

causes many employers to have much respect instead of 
disdain for its possession, as in some cases there exists 
much ability that could be utilized were it not for a 
lack of confidence. Such are worthy of respect, if for no 
other reason than that they present a great contrast to the 
conceit of the "smart Aleck," who thinks he knows it 
all. Again, by patience on the part of an employer 
many may by gradual practice in doing some specific 
work requiring skill, develop the necessary confidence, so 
that in time there may be strong hopes of permanent im- 
provement; at least, this failing cannot destroy all the 



TRAITS DETRIMENTAL TO COMPETENCY 183 

good qualities one may have, like drinking and sporting. 
Fourth. . . .POOR JUDGMENT is difficult to remedy. 
It is a lack of certain brain function that nature failed 
to supply and which training can rarely if ever develop 
to any great extent; but, nevertheless, many of poor 
judgment have talents for some special vocation which 
could if judiciously directed insure them a good living. 
Examples of this are found in the lives of some musi- 
cians, painters and theorists, which demonstrate the fact 
that when rightly placed proper training can make tim- 
bers of many that otherwise could only be sticks. 

Fifth LACK OF PERSEVERANCE has little to 

command respect nor can it hope to achieve competency. 
It blights most all other commendable qualities or talents 
one may possess. Born musicians and painters, for 
example, would achieve little success had they no perse- 
verance in the development of their talents to the point 
of mastery. Success is impossible to any devoid of per- 
severance. It causes one to surrender before a battle is 
fought. About the only thing favorable to be said on 
the lack of perseverance is, that it may, where conditions 
are such as to permit constant probing by bosses, be 
driven to do that which it would otherwise give up ; 
however, if taken in hand early in life by proper train- 
ing, it can often be remedied to a commendable degree. 

Sixth THE SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE is 

often detrimental to one's promotion, on the grounds that 
few know how to use it. Few employers care to place 
much dependence upon any to fill responsible positions 
who are liable to "fly off the handle ' ' at minor disputes 
or happenings which well-balanced persons would ignore. 
It is a trait that many can modify by a strong effort so as 
to enlarge their field for promotion ; further treatment of 
this subject will be found in chapter XXIV. 

Seventh CARELESSNESS generally comes from 

a lack of sincerity and caution and is an inborn disposi- 
tion that requires disciplining very early in childhood, in 
order to best eradicate its tendency. If not accom- 



184 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

plished then, it generally requires some great accident, 
adversity or calamity to make them precautious in cer- 
tain positions they should fill. It is often as dangerous 
to entrust a careless person with any responsibility as 
to rely upon luck in the prevention of an explosion in a 
powder magazine in which there is a smoker. The 
annual loss of life and property through carelessness, 
the world over is something enormous and appalling. 
In railroad accidents alone carelessness often maims and 
kills more than our wars. It is said that there were 
94,000 people killed and wounded by railroads in 
America during 1904. Buoyancy of spirits and ignor- 
ance are great breeders of carelessness, and, there are 
few traits aside from drunkenness which excuses em- 
ployers so much from engaging or promoting a person. 

Eighth STUPIDITY is due to a lack of intelli- 
gence, and is something that offers little encouragement 
for betterment. It causes man to be fitted for little other 
than common labor and in some cases commands a kind 
consideration for its existence, on account of the chance 
of life not having given them good mental powers. 

Ninth BEING GOSSIPY is a failing that hinders 

many from attending to their own work ; it also prevents 
employers from placing much confidence in their ability 
to do anything other than through talking, make trouble, 
blunders or imperfect work, when not closely watched. It 
is a failing that adversity best cures, although the acqui- 
sition of good sense may greatly remedy it if the ''chaw 
mouth" will encourage such improvement. 

Tenth TOO MUCH SMARTNESS is objection- 
able because such a person thinks he knows it all, and 
when one gets so sufficiently smart as to be above learn- 
ing he should, so far as possible, be made to comprehend 
his ignorance. A person can never get too old to learn, 
and recognizing this, few employers care to have the 
"smart Aleck" around if he can at all be avoided. There 
is little hope for the "smart Aleck," for when they do 



TRAITS DETRIMENTAL TO COMPETENCY 187 

come to perceive their errors it is not as a rule until it is 
so late in life that age permits little change. 

Eleventh A CHRONIC KICKER can never pos- 
sess that tranquil disposition necessary to avoid mistakes 
or to do the best work. Aside from this his room is gen- 
erally more desirable than his company, as he is liable 
to disarrange order in management and contentment 
among many well-to-do workers. If some employers would 
take one-hundredth of the pretexts to kick that some 
chronic growlers do, they would wear themselves out in 
short order; so great are their troubles compared to 
that which any single operative can be called upon to 
endure. As a rule any that develop this trait before 
reaching twenty years of age will be apt to continue so 
through the balance of their lives. The best safeguard 
is to labor against such tendency during the minor's 
period of training. 

Twelfth A CLOWN while amusing his fellow 

workers will harass his employer. He is generally apt to 
be attending to other things more than that for which 
he is paid and cannot be trusted with any serious re- 
sponsibility, or command the respect of any workers that 
might be placed under his leadership. The shop clown's 
place is on a corner with a number of loafers, or if good 
at the business, in a circus. To take the clown tendency 
from an operative requires adversity or the observation 
of some terrific accident which will force such to imbibe 
a serious nature. If this ever occurs the chances are 
that the ex-clown can make a most excellent worker. 

Thirteenth A SLOW WORKING PERSON may 

do good work if allowed his time and no one brushes 
against him while he is forging ahead in his own way. 
However, as the slow hand is liable to hold others back 
to his own speed, no employer cares to place the "slow 
poke" where he can retard others' work. This last evil 
more than others causes the slow person to be avoided 
all that is possible, as it must ever be conceded that quan- 
tity has to be considered as much as quality in the 



1 88 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

achievements of a competent worker. If one is slow 
when young there is little hope for him in the future. 
It is a failing that should be looked after sharply during 
the years of training, in order to help them to develop 
such fair activity as can command good wages and steady 
positions in after life. 

Fourteenth. . .A QUARRELSOME PERSON can dis- 
arrange harmony and peace in any position. As harmony 
is very essential in the management of workers in any 
field of labor, it is to the interest of employers as well 
as operatives that quarrelsome persons be avoided all 
that is possible. It is a trait that if not corrected when 
young offers little encouragement of being eradicated. 

Fifteenth THE SLOVENLY WORKER may be 

suitable for certain classes of labor, such as that of dig- 
ging ditches, or shoveling coal, but even with such 
work, a certain order of neatness is often sufficiently 
necessary to make it difficult to find a place where the 
sloven individual can be tolerated, and is a trait which, 
if not corrected early in life, offers little hope for the cul- 
tivation of neatness in after years. 

Sixteenth AN UNSTEADY WORKER is often 

a great aggravation and a number of these operatives 
in a concern can force it to carry so many extra hands 
as to greatly increase the pay rolls and production costs 
over what they should be, thus causing an unnecessary 
expense that could compel some to stop business. Many 
act as though any office, store or shop was merely a play 
ground, kept in order by the proprietor for the coming 
and going of any when the whim takes possession of them. 
Regardless the skill of such a worker, he is always losing 
such valuable time that he makes a very undesirable 
employee. Early training is, as a rule, responsible for 
this injurious characteristic of many would-be workers 
and shows that it is the best to train the young to keep 
themselves well employed at some profitable labor even 
during much of school vacations, instead of allowing 
them to follow the life of a loiterer or pleasure seeker. 



TRAITS DETRIMENTAL TO COMPETENCY 189 

Seventeenth A LIAR is to any vocation a trouble 

breeder, and they who have not the truth in them are 
not to be relied upon, although they may be tolerated 
until something happens to cause their discharge. There 
is one thing certain all liars should expect, and that is, 
no employer will hold them in positions of responsibility 
if it can be avoided. It is an evil trait which parents and 
guardians should labor to prevent the young from ac- 
quiring, for if it is not developed in the minor it will 
rarely exist to any injurious extent in the adult. 

Eighteenth A PERSNICKETY PERSON is gen- 
erally so fussy or fastidious that overseers as a rule hate 
to have him around. If the least thing goes wrong 
these people will not take hold with a cheerful spirit 
and help to right it like rational persons would do, but 
instead start whining, like a pig with a sore ear, until all 
of fair sense get disgusted and out of patience with 
their "granny grunts." Any performing skilled or in- 
tricate labor must expect difficulties and the more cheer- 
fully they undertake to master them the easier and sooner 
are they overcome. It is a weakness which if not stayed 
in one's younger days offers little hope of remedy. 

Nineteenth OBSTINACY when uncontrollable, 

or in constant evidence, debars many from holding 
lucrative positions or from promotion in even humble 
stations of employment. It matters little how high or 
independent any one may be, he cannot, if conditions 
demand his association with others, be so obstinate as 
to disregard others' opinions or views of the ways things 
might be done. Such willful people are generally doing 
something they should not, and their obstinacy often 
leads to poor workmanship, blunders, accidents or 
troublesome grievances which often interfere with the 
management of the works. It is a bad trait and one if 
not checked early will lead to more serious conditions. 

Twentieth. . . .THE WANT OF PATIENCE is a very 
injurious trait ; it can unfit any one for doing good work 
or achieving any marked success. Wherever one may 



190 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

look he can perceive small and great things which could 
never have been completed had not much patience been 
exercised. It is a quality demanded as a mate to caution 
and when combined with other good qualities of men 
can cause its possessor to become a very valuable worker, 
otherwise he must be numbered among the incompetents. 
The only hope of preventing the existence of this weak- 
ness lies in the proper training of the young. 

Twenty-first A VISIONARY PERSON is an 

idealist in the extreme. They are ever trying to do the 
impractical and cause time and money to be lost in fol- 
lowing shadows that can never be caught, and the less a 
person knows the harder it is to convince him that his 
visionary flights are but fogs that need the penetrating 
power of good judgment and experience to guide aright. 
It is a failing difficult to combat in the young and even 
long experience in failures to attain ideals rarely correct 
the weakness, and it generally lasts to the end of life. 

Twenty-second THE FAULT OP OLD AGE 

cannot be always implied by the actual age of the indi- 
vidual, for some may be old at forty while others are in 
full possession of good mental and physical faculties at 
sixty, and, if such have had a broad experience in assum- 
ing grave responsibilities, or if they are skilled workers, 
they should be of much value to any requiring their 
services; for vigor, coupled with long experience, is 
something which cannot be found in the young or middle 
aged. When age is accompanied by lack of ability, it is 
usually found that such have dissipated in passions 
and pleasures and have made no effort to develop their 
mental faculties ; or such also show that they have borne 
no great responsibility while growing into middle life. 
Of these "aged people" there are a plenty and too many 
times dissatisfaction with such is well founded and easily 
verified. One that was stupid coming to the prime of life 
can often be little better than a nonentity when "age" 
tells its story, and such cases make it most difficult for 
employers to find positions to engage their services. It 



TRAITS DETRIMENTAL TO COMPETENCY 191 

has often been said that one is no older than he feels, 
however, it is a quality that lies greatly with one's self, 
and they that start young to combat the approach of old 
age will repel it in a marvelous manner, compared to 
those who make no effort to ward off its shortcomings. 
Strive to obtain and retain vigor of body and mind as 
early and long as nature will permit, and, barring acci- 
dents, some may often, by reason of experience, be more 
valuable after reaching fifty than before it, or, in other 
words, be younger old men than they were young ones. 

Twenty-third THE "STIFF" PERSON, or un- 
bending operative, as is found in the one who is afraid 
to strain a muscle or bend his back and has always the 
same slow gait, is objectionable in the worker on the 
grounds that he is generally thinking more of how best 
to take good care of his own precious body than how 
best to do his work. The majority of these people have 
such a slow movement that should they perceive that a 
few quick steps might free them from a burning building 
or from the wheels of a fast express, they would be pow- 
erless to make them. The snail's unchanging speed is 
pardonable because nature gave it no faculty for varying 
it, but such snail's inability approved in man would de- 
stroy all the attributes that make him worthy the name. 

Twenty-fourth BEING SLOW AT LEARNING 

prevents many employers from attempting to take such 
in hand, nevertheless there are some who, if conditions 
would permit doing so, would make very trustworthy 
and competent workers,, and may often excel in the end 
the quicker thinking beginner. There are always some 
that can think and act faster than others, but when the 
slow student has grasped any conception, it is generally 
so held that there is little fear of its escaping any more 
than heavy oil absorbed by thick cloth can be easily or 
wholly removed by lapse of time and shows that if con- 
ditions will not permit waiting for the thick to absorb 
the heavy, then a quicker absorbent must be employed. 

Twenty-fifth INVETERATE SMOKER. There 



192 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

are four strong objections to this baneful habit. First, 
the worker who is every little while filling a pipe or hand- 
ling a cigar cannot in many instances have sufficient use 
of his hands and eyes. One so occupied is less liable to 
be alert against accidents to himself or others and by any 
carelessness he is often liable to cause fires which might 
involve heavy losses. Second, the filling and handling 
of pipe or cigar can take from one to three minutes for 
every smoke; multiply this by ten for one man having 
a smoke every hour, and by one hundred for ten men, 
and so on up to a thousand or over, and all can readily 
perceive where the evil leads to in the loss of time and 
wages in the every day running of many concerns. 
Third, any one requiring the use of two hands cannot be 
constantly filling a pipe or balancing a cigar without 
occasionally making mistakes or imperfect work. Fourth, 
it does not look business like to see one trying to work 
with a pipe or a cigar in his mouth and any one, whether 
foreman or workman, that desires to be all for which 
he is paid, will omit smoking during working hours. 
Many concerns strictly forbid its practice and it would 
be beneficial to all if such a ruling could be universally 
enforced. Such would, of course, reduce employment 
for much labor, as in the United States alone there were 
in 1900 87,955 males and 43,497 females employed in the 
manufacture of tobacco and cigars; but working people 
who are not needed in these pursuits could be trained for 
other occupations which are in need of competent work- 
ers; positions which are not detrimental to good clean 
habits as is the use of tobacco. 

There are many who, after reading the foregoing, will 
no doubt be surprised at the mass of people that are 
made too incompetent through the lack of right training 
to properly fill responsible positions or attain proficiency 
by reason of possessing baneful traits, all demonstrating 
the need of greater development of man's inherited 
ability. It will also cause some to partly realize the great 
difficulty many employers must have in conducting in- 
dustrial or mercantile business. While such a state of 



TRAITS DETRIMENTAL TO COMPETENCY 193 

affairs is deplorable, it is not wholly beyond reform, as 
can be discerned by a study of most of the first twenty- 
five paragraphs in this chapter, also those of the preced- 
ing ones. In the foregoing paragraphs numbers 1, 3, 4, 5, 
6, 7, 9, 12 and 22 show that certain bad traits can be 
greatly if not wholly eradicated in adults, while proper 
training can prevent their acquisition by youths before 
attaining maturity, as is seen by paragraphs numbers 2, 
11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23 and 25. Numbers 8, 

10 and 21 offer little or no hope for reform. 

# # * 

One very baneful trait not treated in either of the 
foregoing eleven pages, of the weaknesses displayed in 
many, lies in the lack of thoroughness. Many vocations 
or duties demand dispositions that can be trained to be 
most careful, precise and painstaking; such as can 
achieve the best perfection or correctness that is practical 
to expect of intelligent or trained men or women. So 
many have such a slack, anything-should-do way of 
working, that whatever other good qualities they may 
possess count for naught in their filling positions with 
credit. To be thorough calls for the exercise of con- 
centration, accuracy, caution, and neatness in combina- 
tion with most all other good qualities which are 
commendable in man. It is a qualification that in exe- 
cuting any work or duty in a thorough manner leaves 
no ground, for complaint of slackness, errors, accidents 
or inferior work. The operative or manager not 
thorough in any labor entrusted to him can often be 
objectionable to fill responsible positions as any having 
one or more of the imperfections discussed in the fore- 
going thirty-three defects and which could often have 
been prevented had there been the training in youth 
which this work so strongly advocates. 

If it were possible to rightly interest the Caucasian 
world in the practical training that is now needed, the 
outcome in 20 years should exhibit a great decrease in 
the bad training and baneful traits now so injurious to 
man and it will do so if the teachings of this work are 
practiced as they should be to judiciously train and 
direct the steps of the young. 



CHAPTER XIX 
Needs and Benefits of Self-Denial 

Pew males or females ever obtained a good start in 
life by their own efforts, without denying themselves of 
many passing pleasures and comforts that those of their 
own class enjoyed. There are some, who realizing the 
necessity of self-denial in order to overcome obstacles 
and obtain a start, have so isolated themselves from the 
companionship of their fellow pleasure seekers, that in 
order to obtain true pleasure and comforts when they 
were ready to rejoin their old associates, they found they 
had to return to their old practice of self-denial and 
studious labor, showing thereby that there is not the 
misery in self-denial that so many apprehend. 

The power of self-denial is not born in man, it must 
be developed. From the savage up to those of highest 
culture, it is a constant study with many to gratify their 
craving for the pleasures and luxuries of life. The 
number that in the spring time of life are true lovers of 
labor, when self-denials are necessary to obtain a start, 
are very scarce. The environments surrounding the 
young are not helpful to develop self-denial. They are 
tempted with the allurements of ease and pleasure at 
every turn. Attractions of every kind, such as the fes- 
tivities of home, the public halls and theatres, to sports 
and idle amusements are constantly soliciting time or at- 
tention. Many give themselves up so much to pleasure 
seeking and pastimes of life that they are perfectly mis- 
erable if they are not constantly gratifying their passion 
for pleasures. While they who deny themselves these 
excesses in pleasures and ease may lose much enjoyment, 
it is not the great loss many think. Those that occupy 
themselves with some study or labor in an effort to im- 
prove themselves are never at a loss to occupy their time. 

To be busy is to be contented, to be contented is the 
acme of all that is peaceful and happy. No man, regard- 



NEEDS AND BENEFITS OF SELF-DENIAL 195 

less of his financial standing, position or esteem, can pos- 
sess a greater prize. Watch the infatuated society leader, 
who has nothing to keep the mind in a whirl, the devotee 
of public amusements lost for some place to go, the 
loiterer standing on the corner some wet day, the gossip 
uneasy for some scandal to discuss, and think if they are 
not objects of pity. Compare pleasure seekers and idlers 
to busy men or women that are laboring hard to reach 
some goal, or possess something of intrinsic value that can 
ever render them solid comfort and true happiness, and 
there are few but that will be forced to concede the latter 
class as being by far the best off. 

There are those advanced in life that are not what they 
would like to be, that can look back and perceive the 
golden opportunity they had to place themselves ahead 
of the position they occupy, and all because they did not 
develop in their youth the power to resist passing al- 
lurements to ease and pleasure. Had these same people 
to live life over again, many would do differently and 
such often advise the young not to make the mistake 
they did. It is very hard for the young to resist the en- 
vironments alluring them to seek ease and pleasure as 
they are made as fascinating as possible, in order that 
some may live and obtain wealth by their existence. 
Create means by which money can be made in any line 
and it is very hard to suppress their being set forth in 
the most fascinating and attractive manner possible. 

Many seek worldly pleasures so much they can 
think of little else and unintentionally neglect their 
regular duties, so as to often seriously injure their inter- 
ests. Too many are controlled by the allurements of 
passing events ; they seem to forget there are other days 
coming, and that in such there will be attractions as 
great if not greater than those of the present and by 
letting those of today pass they can often fit themselves 
to enjoy more those of tomorrow. One is not to infer 
by this that they must isolate themselves entirely from 
all the pleasure of life. Our natures demand some recrea- 
tion ; some can live by finding this in a change of work, 



196 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

while others require ease or amusements. It is modera- 
tion in seeking recreation that we commend. Excessive 
indulgence in anything, no matter how good, can be in- 
jurious in some way or other. 

One of the severest tests of self-denial we are called 
upon to endure lies in creating and sustaining our re- 
spectability and virtues. The man must resist indulgence 
in drinking, gambling, sensuality, and rascality. The 
woman must refrain from any action, carriage or address 
that might give rise to any gossip or scandal to impugn 
her reputation. This is often so exacting as to compel 
many women to live such lonely lives as to remind one of 
Mark Twain's homely saying, "Be good but be lone- 
some.' ' Inability of some women to withstand being 
lonely for long periods has dragged them down to dis- 
grace. However, man's condition differs so much from 
woman's, there is little excuse for loneliness depriving 
him of respectability. 

None should consider the precepts of this chapter 
more than those who are apprenticed to learn a trade. 
Here self-denial for a few years can place those of in- 
telligence and health in a position to ever afterwards 
greatly exceed the wages paid common clerks and labor- 
ers. Taking the general average of conditions for an 
illustration, we can credit the wages of an apprentice at 
75 cents per day for the first year, $1.00 for the second, 
$1.25 for the third, and $1.50 for the fourth year, if more 
than three years is necessary. After the expiration of 
the last year's apprenticeship an adult should receive 
from $2.00 to $5.00 per day. Allowing three hundred 
working days in a year and living fifty years, a man 
should at the lowest rate receive $4,500 more than what 
he could make being employed as common laborer, or 
clerk, with chances of his making over $30,000 should he 
receive $5.00 per day. The opportunity of making from 
$10,000 to $30,000 more during life than is possible 
working as common clerk or laborer, is surely worth two 
to three years' deprivation of some passing pleasures and 
ease in starting life. This should cause all to discern 



NEEDS AND BENEFITS OF SELF-DENIAL 197 

that every man of fair intelligence owes it to himself to 
master some trade or profession. 

Many youths are reared to assume such greatness and 
false independence that they cannot condescend to he 
thought of other than being a very important personage. 
To support their false pride requires higher wages than 
75 cents per day. To obtain this as soon as possible they 
take up common clerkship, laboring or some minor occu- 
pation, apparently never for a moment considering the 
future any more than many Indians or Africans do. 
Before many youths realize it they are out of their teens 
and become adults who find there is little left for them 
other than to continue in the same line in which they 
started. Assuming a character and possessing false in- 
dependence, when the practice of early training can 
easily become second nature, leaves one subject to 
rebuffs and censure, and which, accompanied with the 
loss of comforts and pleasures incumbent upon low wages 
and want of employment, causes many to have so little 
that they lose all interest in striving to be respected 
citizens. 

Man requires a certain amount of will power when 
laboring to achieve anything worthy of his efforts. 
There are few but that can command this power if they 
will only seriously consider the benefits that are to be de- 
rived by resisting the tempting influences of excess in 
seeking pleasures. One way to aid in cultivating this 
power is to think of the many attractions passing in other 
towns, cities and countries, and if in connection with this 
thought we would consider the impossibility of witness- 
ing or taking part in them it would be much easier to 
resist those we are in a position to attend. There is 
little satisfaction in being present at minor attractions 
if we will keep strongly in mind those of great magni- 
tude or splendor, which distance debars our presence. 

Starting to practice self-denial of ease and pleasure is 
similar to commencing any other thing requiring will 
power. The first step or action in anything is always 
as a rule most difficult and the hardest, but once begun 



198 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

grows easier at every advance and soon places one where 
the greatest allurements will not attract them from the 
paths of stern duty. When minors or adults become suf- 
ficiently interested in any work not to have passing 
pleasures allure them, they have mastered one of the 
greatest weaknesses of man, and not until they have ob- 
tained some such control of themselves can they ever 
expect to succeed in greatly bettering their condition or 
achieve any worthy accomplishment in life. 

1 ' Great is self-denial : Life goes all to revels and tat- 
ters where that enters not."— Carlyle. 



CHAPTER XX 
Practicability of Developing Will Power and Self-Con trol 

The greatest self-control is obtained by the develop- 
ment of one's own will power. The doctrine of teaching 
man to look outside of himself for strength to control 
his desires, appetites or passions, or to accomplish com- 
mendable achievements, is a false one and has been very 
detrimental to his advancement. 

We are free moral agents and must work out our 
own destiny. It is unmanly to hold others responsible 
for any lack of our own inability to control our desires 
or passions. If one has a strong appetite for intoxicat- 
ing liquors, it will remain for him to say "I drink no 
more," and then struggle with a firm will to keep his 
resolution. He must depend upon himself, no other 
power will make him subdue his appetite. ' ' Where there 
is a will there is a way, ' ' is applicable to few things more 
than quelling our evil practices, appetites or passions. 

The one that develops a will can generally find a way 
to accomplish all things that are possible to his ability. 
In saying "I will" one must use reason and common 
sense, for no amount of willing can cause one to fly like 
a bird or swim like a fish : in either case to say ' ' I will ' ' 
would be affirming to do something foolish or impossible. 
Again it would be better to be a weakling all one's life 
than a strong willed villain, or a stubborn fool, and it is 
often the question which to fear the most. This is not 
saying that a strong will will never lead good, sensible and 
morally disposed persons to do things detrimental to their 
own or others' interests. 

Mistakes chargeable to a strong will or stubbornness 
are to be found in the life record of many well disposed 
persons. But the same spirit of determination that has 
carried some onward to the enactment of their mistakes 
is to be held responsible for any achievements which may 
have made them eminent for great successes in life. 

One peculiarity about will power lies in its being 



200 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

augmented by our desires and emotions and lends its 
strength to lead us on in any direction, good or bad, ac- 
cording as we may allow conditions to influence us. 

The greatest support rendered to the will comes from 
confidence in one's own ability. The person that feels 
weak in any certain point cannot labor or enter contests 
in that line with the same stubborn determination to suc- 
ceed which he otherwise would. The engineer that plans 
to tunnel some great mountain, bridge a wide river, or 
master other obstacles that nature has placed in his way, 
when striving to construct level roadways, can be the 
more determined in his efforts to succeed according as he 
feels confidence in his ability. The tradesman in under- 
taking any new or difficult job does not begin it with 
the same force of will power as if he were familiar with 
the work ; there exists a timidity which only subsides as 
he gains confidence that he will succeed. 

Bad habits are the more difficult to annul the more 
one grows confirmed in their practice. Many an ine- 
briate has trembled at the thought of attempting to re- 
form. The dread of the suffering that the craving for 
drink would inflict is greater than they feel able to en- 
dure. Some have said positively "I will drink no more," 
and in the attempt, although nearly dying, keep their 
resolutions; such a will is deserving of man's greatest 
praise. 

The parents' greatest labor lies in directing the child 
in right doing. The will power a child first exerts is 
chiefly in stubbornly combating the discipline so essential 
to him. As children grow, the more stubborn some get 
and many develop a will that cannot be easily governed, 
thus showing that as the will is developed it often re- 
quires great labor and training to guide it rightly. The 
same degree of stubbornness in the fool or villain that 
leads to evil can, if directed to doing good, be as power- 
ful in one as the other. 

The duty of parents lies not in restraining or breaking 
children's wills but in rightly directing them. If this 
can be done, the greater the will the prouder should par- 



WILL POWER AND SELF-CONTROL 203 

ents be, as those of weak wills can never accomplish any 
commendable undertaking but will help make a weak 
nation, as there is little firmness in such people to con- 
tend for their rights and protection. 

To make a success of life we must not only have strong 
wills, but be able to control them ; one quality is as es- 
sential as the other. The difference between these quali- 
ties lies chiefly in the will being properly developed while 
children, and the power of control as we advance further 
in years. 

The earlier one starts in life to practice self-control 
the greater his ability to do so, as the maxim * * It is hard 
to teach old dogs new tricks" applies to this question as 
well as others. The better the self-control the more able 
we are to resist influences to do that which is detrimental 
to our welfare, or say no or yes when occasion demands. 
There is little respect for him who is influenced to take a 
drink against his will. Because one man will persist in 
ruining his life is no reason why another should follow 
his example. 

To be manly one must have a strong will and a manly 
man cannot be influenced to injure himself or others like 
a weak minded person. If there were no opportunities 
to develop self-control many would be entitled to sym- 
pathy, but such is not the case. Every sane person un- 
consciously exerts more or less self-control. Who of 
such knowingly pass in front of a fast moving locomo- 
tive, place their hands in a fire, abuse a person they wish 
to ask a favor of, or do any of the thousand and one 
thing which are absurd ? 

If man can seemingly act unconsciously in controlling 
himself as he does from doing the many absurd things of 
life, why is it not possible for him to go a little further 
and shun the acknowledged vices or practices that are 
so injurious to his welfare. Serious study of this point 
must show that such is not impossible, in fact there is no 
person of sane mind but that can, if he will, surprise 
himself and others by his practice of self-control, to aid 
him in being the more efficient man. 



CHAPTER XXI 
Testing and Improving the Capabilities of the Mind 

When adults endeavor to study the scope of the human 
mind they can become as enchanted and bewildered as 
in a study of astronomy, for both while deep, present 
such a vast field of investigation that their actions re- 
quire the use of imagination as well as facts to gain any 
fair comprehension of their magnitude and power. We 
know it to be a fact that rainbows are produced by the 
sun shining on drops of water, and we can make them, 
but what should produce the true arch and beautiful 
blend of colors is left more to our imagination. 

There are times when we are afforded better oppor- 
tunities to study the mind or astronomy than others. 
The heavens appear as merely the face of a large blue 
canvass that is covered or dotted here and there with 
objects, leading one to think there was nothing beyond, 
when a total eclipse of the sun or moon occurs, or broken 
clouds pass by these bodies, one is made to realize that 
there is something beyond these surface confines, as we 
are reminded of the depth of the mind when we listen to 
oratory, read the writings of master minds or note the 
hand work of great men. § t 

The best way to realize the power of the mind is to put 
it through a course of practice which can test its capa- 
bilities and while the mind is a wonderful creation we 
are ever to remember that its achievements are largely 
due to development, similar as one strengthens their 
physical powers by exercising them. As an example, if 
the young had never started to use their legs they could 
not stand erect, but continued effort develops such ex- 
pertness as to enable some to walk slack wires or ropes. 
The hands would also be powerless were they never used, 
but development shows how marvelous their dexterity 
when we consider the hand work of great musicians, 
jugglers and magicians. These matters would all of 
course be powerless to achieve their great results were 



TESTING AND IMPROVING THE MIND 205 

there no mind to guide them, nevertheless those possessed 
of the best and highest developed minds could never use 
their limbs to the highest perfection had they not used 
them for a long time or patiently exercised them. 

Those that endeavor to create a new thought, a new 
device, or work their way out of new difficulties realize 
more than otherwise the powers and resources of the 
mind. The natural training one receives in the home and 
educational institutions is due largely to the work of 
other minds. It is not what the average mind under con- 
ditions of ease and comfort can achieve that tests the 
full resources and power of man's mind. 

One may write a letter, something the wealth of the 
whole world could not produce (did one not desire it 
written), and yet while giving this original matter, some- 
thing which money could not buy, he does nothing that 
would greatly tax the mind for the reason that the person 
had been trained through a long period to spell and 
write. If adults desire to know their full strength and 
attain commendable physical or mental labors they must 
forge ahead of what is designed for the average body or 
minds to achieve. 

It is to the credit of men that they may have within 
them that which can surprise themselves at results ob- 
tained, if they will but make the effort to test the capa- 
bilities of their minds. The average humdrum way of 
working mind and body draws forth the full capabilities 
of man, little, if any more, than the untrained race horse 
can demonstrate his ability to excel the one that has not 
the build of a trotter. 

The development of humanity through ages has pro- 
duced a wonderful inheritance of power of mind and 
body, and for men and women to die ignorant of their 
full ability would seem that they had failed woefully in 
doing their best. It is not necessary in doing one's best 
to injure the mind or body. The earnest workers are, as 
a rule, more healthy persons than the loiterers. They do 
not kill the race horse or prize fighter, accountant or 
operator by training them to do their best ; such merely 



206 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

makes better and stronger beings of them. In such train- 
ing, science and common sense are used, which are 
factors injurious to no man. It is worry, dissipation 
and indolence which kills most people before their due 
time, but not hard work. Those who can avoid these de- 
stroyers of strength and life will, if they accept the 
maxim that it is better to be worn out than to rust out, 
find that by striving to do their best they could get much 
more out of life than those that can go along in the aver- 
age loiterer's rust-out way. 

Many now as in the past are continuing in common la- 
bor who could be at much more remunerative work had 
they, when young, striven more to develop and test 
the strength of their mental powers. They got in the 
habit of thinking they could not be any different than 
the way their youthful training left them. All are not 
justified in conceding others better than themselves until 
they have gained an opportunity to be tested. "He was 
a good man until tested" should not frighten any one 
from undergoing such ordeal, for the reason such could 
allow one to make an effort to develop their weak points 
did a test show their existence. 

The minor or adult that has the fortune to be gifted 
with fair brains commits a sin when he will not aspire to 
positions that will permit their best use. The world 
holds many that do not possess sufficient brains to be 
anything other than common laborers or clerks and 
between these, and those that are indifferent or too in- 
dolent to use them, they will no doubt be plenty to ever 
do the common labor work of life. 

When men or women have developed the mind to 
its greatest power, the quest of the conditions of lon- 
gevity or vigor of life, is one that will confront many. 
By taking good care of the physical, the developed mind 
can retain such power that age would seem as a restora- 
tive to make young what indolence would have made 
so decrepit, as to make second childhood a stern reality. 

The lowest ranks are crowded with menials, while 
the heights are yearning for competents, and by a bet- 



TESTING AND IMPROVING THE MIND 209 

ter use of the "good brains" that do exist, a distribu- 
tion of talents will be had that cannot but redound to 
the credit of posterity of all labor. All evidence 
points to the benefits to be gained by developing and 
testing the capability of the mind, and as man leading 
all living creatures, we all should be proud of the op- 
portunity that exists to further develop our strength 
of body and mind, so as to increase our efficiency and 
thereby help ourselves, as well as assisting in making the 
world better than we found it. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Necessity and Development of Physical and Mental 
Strength 

Vital force is essential in all undertakings if one 
would achieve success. To possess vital force one must 
be healthy, robust and strong. There are few vocations 
in which men or women can be successful in being ill 
one day and well another. This is most true in cases 
where any one must compete with those who are con- 
stantly striving to better their positions, decrease their 
costs or increase their wealth. Not only is permanent 
health a great necessity in order to be able to be up and 
doing at any hour, but also to aid any one to withstand 
the unexpected and trying difficulties which every one 
must endure who labors to succeed. 

There are few if any who have assumed large respon- 
sibilities or labored to achieve any great accomplishment 
but have encountered unexpected difficulties and found 
such reverses rarely came single-handed and the 
maxim, "It never rains but it pours," applies truthfully 
in their case. If man has every other quality but the 
vital force or grit needed to combat the unexpected 
arduous, harrowing or the antagonistic that will come to 
him who labors to compete with or surpass others' 
achievements, they would avail him naught in attaining 
success. 

To be born with the possession of good health, is the 
greatest gift that parents can give to their offspring. 
There are few sights more pathetic than infirm children 
growing up to be confirmed invalids. The one that 
starts life with no prospects of being healthy, has little 
or nothing to live for, and it would often be charitable 
for death to take them early in life. To be born healthy 
is a fortune which when possessed should be cultivated 
and maintained more than wealth. Good health can 



PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STRENGTH 211 

pass from one's keeping by errors in self-government 
and dissipation as readily as riches. More care should 
be exercised to guard one's health than their wealth. 
Some invalids with millions would gladly give all their 
wealth in exchange for good health and strength. 

Much has been done to improve the physical strength 
of man and there is need of continued efforts to do so, 
especially in contriving or exercising to develop sturdy 
physiques. Women have a power in this that can be 
used to achieve great good. Many refuse the attentions 
of the gamblers, inebriates, loiterers, saloonkeepers, 
thieves, illiterate, poor, also incompetent men because 
of a fear that such might disgrace them or be unable 
to properly support them. Women's objections to mar- 
riage with men of above traits are sustained in many 
cases by all that is proper and just. If woman cannot 
marry to live comfortably and in good repute she is 
better off single though she can but make a bare living 
and her life be lonely and lost to motherhood. Have 
woman create a sentiment against marrying the very 
diminutive and weak or any having physical infirmi- 
ties, unfitting man for parentage, as they have against 
the immoral and untrained and the growth of our race 
will in time demonstrate the wisdom of woman's power 
of consent being swayed to develop higher morals, health 
and strength. 

The greatest destroyers of health are dissipation, 
worry, fear and indolence. As a rule those who are such 
busy hard workers that they have not the time for 
noticing every little ache or brooding over trifles are 
the most healthy people. The hardest labor if done with 
a willing, cheerful mind, will rarely destroy one 's health, 
whereas indolence can readily create a lethargy to ruin 
it. Almost every community possesses successful men 
who have retired from business, thinking a removal of 
care would give them greater health and comfort, but in- 
stead, found such to bring despondency and disease and 
that to resume labor would be curative and healthful 
for them. It does not require a long career of steady 



212 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

labor before resting to prove the baneful effects of in- 
dolence. 

Every industrious, steady working man that has ever 
rested a day in wanton idleness knows from experience 
that the coming of evening was not approached with the 
same feeling of gratification or joy, as upon those which 
he labored all day, and also that he anxiously longed 
for the morrow when he would work, that he might 
shake off the despondency overpowering him. Let all 
of such experience stop to consider how they would feel 
were they not able when morning came, to resume their 
labor, but instead found they were consigned to con- 
tinued idleness. A few thoughts in this line should lead 
many to consider it a great privilege and pleasure to have 
an opportunity to labor. 

Physical labor is much more healthful than mental. 
Very hard, steady mental labor can injure and kill 
more than hard, steady physical work ; combining the two 
without reasonable intervals of rest, as treated in the 
next paragraph, is where the most danger lies. One 
rarely ever learns of persons losing health or life strictly 
on account of steady manual labor, that does not 
demand strength above the ordinary, whereas we often 
learn of mental work doing so ; thus teaching us that an 
even tenor and steady exercise of the physical func- 
tions are very important in promoting health and lon- 
gevity of life. By promoting the health of the body, the 
brain can generally be kept young and vigorous to do 
good work when aged as in the prime of life. 

The greatest risk of injury lies in the cases where 
both mind and body are taxed to extremes, as in the 
case of the manager, or severely treated worker, who is 
constantly on his feet moving rapidly from one place to 
another where at every turn some problem that requires 
deep thinking and worry confronts him. This is similar 
to burning a candle at both ends and can create fatigue 
that may demand rest or assistance much more than 
where extra efforts of mind or body are demanded more 
independently of each other. 




Exercising in the Rockies 



PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STRENGTH 215 

A healthy man should be able to keep steadily at 
manual labor for eight to ten hours every work-day, 
combined with evening recreations of work or play, until 
he is nearly seventy; providing he takes proper food, 
six to eight hours good sleep and keeps his body clean. 
The same is to be said of mental labor, providing a per- 
son will spend one to two hours daily in physical work 
or exercise and which should be out of doors as much 
as possible. The hard mental worker who will not, or 
cannot spend some of his time in taking care of his physi- 
cal being, must succumb earlier to failure in health. 

No one is born in full possession of his best physi- 
cal and mental powers, but must develop these as he 
grows into maturity. It is often surprising what can 
be accomplished by efforts to develop man's inherited 
powers. Examples of what training and practice attains 
for man is illustrated mentally, in the ability of Au- 
thors, Engineers, Financiers, Managers, Mathematicians, 
Promoters and Statesmen; also by the achievements of 
the Bar, Press and Pulpit, as well as in the Attainment 
of Culture, whether in the leisure or busy class. Physi- 
cal attainments are seen in the efforts of the skillful 
violinist, performers on the piano and the ability dis- 
played by acrobats, ball players, rowers and the cham- 
pion pugilists ; also in the diverse manual labors of man, 
very pronounced in his ability to withstand the high 
temperature of the sun and furnace, and the hard labor 
of breaking pig iron. 

Many men who were once unable to lift and carry 
more than fifty pounds steadily at short intervals for an 
hour, have by practice become able to withstand the 
laborious work of breaking and carrying pig iron weigh- 
ing 150 pounds to 200 pounds, steadily, from nine to 
ten hours daily, showing little if any signs of fatigue, 
and is a good example of what training can accomplish 
for man. It is nothing uncommon to see men taking up 
new work and leaving it in an hour or two after starting 
because they thought it too hard. New work always calls 
for the exercise of muscles which were not developed in 



216 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

previous lines of labor, and no man can engage in new 
labor without feeling certain muscles sore and strained, 
but such rarely gives one reason to condemn the results 
on the ground of labor being too hard. If we admit such 
conclusions as being that which all should abide by, we 
would drift back to where some would complain at lift- 
ing a lead pencil. All must remember that any new 
manual labor is hard, and to do it often requires much 
time to develop the muscles called into use, before such 
work can be done free of soreness, strains and worry. 

It is wonderful what a man can achieve by de- 
veloping his strength. Some can train themselves to 
labor steadily for 14 to 18 hours every day in the week, 
obtaining thereby but five to eight hours sleep, an 
amount of rest which is small, but sufficient for some, it 
depending largely upon one's training. Many can look 
back to some period when they retired before 9 :30 and 
if they were any later would feel the loss of sleep, then 
again they can remember periods when they never went 
to bed before 11 o'clock and after getting accustomed 
to do so they had difficulty to retire any sooner. There 
is much in habit. 

In developing children's powers, the physical qualities 
require most attention, for without strength in these 
there is little to support the mental. All parents should 
make a study of muscular development to learn the best 
method and enforce good practice as far as they can 
in this line. Our modern colleges wisely recognize the 
necessity of good physical training along with the men- 
tal. Some colleges believe so firmly in the benefits of 
physical training that they expend from $30,000 to $50,- 
000 per year on its athletic and gymnasium exercises. 
Many college graduates of to-day are towering pillars of 
physical and mental strength, requiring but little de- 
velopment to bring out the best that is practical in man, 
and which would be done if so many did not wish or try 
to act the skilled expert or president before experience 
would demonstrate their deficiencies. 

In laboring to develop the physical, good care and 



PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STRENGTH 217 

judgment must be exercised. A healthy, weak person 
cannot be made a strong one in a month, it may require 
several years of patient steady efforts. In striving to 
develop one 's strength for any certain work, none should 
persevere until greatly fatigued, nor give up because 
he may get a little tired, for in a short time such will 
disappear, and one can keep going a little further at each 
turn until the desired strength is attained. 

The one who has not trained himself to do the or- 
dinary manual labor with ease for eight to ten hours 
every work day, before he is thirty, will rarely ever 
be able to do so after passing this age, and he who 
is called upon to do so is often to be pitied, as he 
can never work with the ease or comfort he other- 
wise could. Experience shows the importance of all 
youths being trained to do strenuous physical labor in 
the field or work shop before they reach twenty-five, 
and even if they are not called upon in after years to 
make their living by manual labor, the strength they 
developed when young will ever be of priceless value to 
them, in assisting to perform mental labor. 

A peculiar difference between physical and mental 
development lies in the former permitting one to often 
do good work so long as he can keep at it, but with the 
latter such is not the case. As soon as the mind shows 
the least fatigue it ceases to do its best work and would be 
improved by a rest. What one person may be able to en- 
dure without feeling fatigue or strain in either case 
another cannot, nevertheless such is no excuse for pre- 
venting any one from making an effort. No one knows 
what he can endure until tested. It may take a dozen 
years to attain one's highest physical or mental develop- 
ment, but by perseverance there are none but that can 
be improved and often to such a degree as to be greatly 
surprised at the inherited ability he possesses. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

Value of Realizing the Evils of Immoral Practices and 
Incompetency 

One great defect in our educational system lies in not 
making a greater effort to impress minors with the 
vigilance that they should use to guard against the 
misery and sufferings of immoral practices and incom- 
petency, which many have to endure throughout the sum- 
mer and fall of their lives, by reason of youthful in- 
discretions. Minors are rarely permitted by the well-to- 
do to observe other than the happiest situations of life. 
They may read of crimes and sufferings in papers or 
books and be told of them but such affords little realiza- 
tion of the great misery that exists, and wrecks that 
might have been avoided. One of the best steps that 
can be taken with minors, to have them realize what 
is heaven and hell of life, is to let them occasionally 
visit prisons, museums of anatomy and homes of 
paupers. In the first they can obtain such realization of 
the misery and horror of prison life that will fill nearly 
all well disposed individuals with a fear that cannot but 
greatly restrain them from acts that would place them be- 
hind the bars. In connection with these occasional visits 
to jails or barred dungeons, the minor should be im- 
pressed as far as possible with the feelings of a liberated 
prisoner, who, disgraced for life finds nothing but snubs 
and snarls to greet his every turn, and such complete 
ostracism from society, as to make him often feel he 
would rather be in his grave, or back in prison with all 
of its horrors. 

In visiting museums of anatomy the minor in com- 
pany with good disposed instructors will be brought to 
such realization of the awful suffering and disgrace of 
youthful abuses of passions as cannot but cause him 
to tremble with fear at the thought of running chances of 
being a victim to any of the loathsome diseases he ob- 



REALIZING EVILS OF IMMORALITY 219 

served. The disgrace, misery and suffering such debased 
indiscretion creates, would be greatly reduced were 
all minors permitted to perceive with their own 
eyes the results of such immoral, unlawful prac- 
tices. These sexual vices destroy man's competency to a 
very injurious degree and many that could have been 
a great credit to themselves and the world, for useful- 
ness, have gone down through indiscretion to early 
graves, and in many cases ruined much of the pleasures 
of life for others. 

It is a much more delicate task to inform and guard 
girls against pit-falls, than boys, but in no case should 
mock modesty prevent their being forewarned of the 
numerous ways and means that are devised to rob them 
of their virtue. If it is not practical to permit them 
to perceive with their own eyes the terrible misery and 
disgrace created by the seducer, let them read of such 
whenever they can, though it be as foul a description of 
man's depravity as is exhibited by the appearance of 
the "cadet," who is selected for his handsome carriage 
and paid well for seducing innocent girls and placing 
them in houses of prostitution. 

In the poorhouse or homes of the needy can be seen 
those dependent on charity receiving such scanty fare 
of the necessities of life that should cause the well cared 
for youths to apprecite good homes, and realize in a 
greater measure the necessity of guarding against be- 
ing subjects of charity, or eking out an existence in 
such poverty as to often make the environments of a 
poorhouse a paradise in comparison to what may be 
termed a tramp's life. How few of the well cared for 
ever stop to give one moment's thought to the priva- 
tions and sufferings a tramp endures. He is human like 
all the rest of mankind, and has a heart to feel the 
pangs of cold, hunger and sickness nearly as much as 
he that might suddenly be cast penniless from the lux- 
urious living of a palace upon the cold charities of a 
homeless life. Many of the well cared for act as if they 
thought that all tramps took pleasure in living such a 



220 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

life. Some tramps may enjoy their hard lot, but such 
sentiments work injury in causing many to disregard the 
probability of their ever being dependent upon charity, 
and not until it is too late do they realize that had they 
been made to consider in the "hay-day" of their life 
the real distress of poverty they would have guarded 
against such deprivations and suffering. 

There are few greater factors to aid the attainment 
of true comfort and happiness than possessing the ability 
to forecast the effect of changes in conditions of life. 
Ask any unfortunate when first cast into prison, if he 
had realized more fully its horrors before committing 
crime, whether it would have prevented its enactment, 
and the majority of such would answer in the affirma- 
tive. Few stop to think or make any effort to realize 
the effect of changes in conditions and it is one of the 
defects of our educational system in not laboring more 
to develop such ability. It is to be hoped that the day 
is not far distant when the best efforts will be made to 
have minors observe and study conditions in a manner 
which will awaken and develop a greater ability to an- 
ticipate effects of changes in these conditions than man 
has heretofore exhibited. 

Any life is sure to be clouded at some time with sor- 
row or suffering, but as long as it is not some adversity 
to cover them with an unmovable cloud to sadden all the 
balance of their lives, they have much to be thankful for. 

Life can be made such a happy existence to the one 
possessing health and freedom from adversity, as to 
make them anxious to seek and remain in its portals, as 
believers in future punishments are to evade the tortures 
of Hades. If all would strive when young to realize the 
evils of immoral practices and incompetency, it would 
greatly assist to make the earthly life of man such a 
haven of comfort and happiness that few would regret 
their living, whereas to-day there are so many failures 
to achieve success or true happiness that thousands of 
souls are lost to the enjoyments of life and wish them- 
selves free from its responsibilities and obligations. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
The Folly of Fool's Independence 

The spirit which brought the pilgrims from England 
to land on the shores of America was the same as that 
which nerved the hands of Jefferson and his associates 
to sign the Declaration of Independence, which has 
given to the United States the glorious Republic with 
its freedom of speech and press which its millions en- 
joy to-day. The great good this act did for humanity 
will be heralded for ages to come, and is a spirit of in- 
dependence to be ever encouraged in man. 

The one that does not possess some independence will 
be more or less of a nonentity, a person lacking one of 
the chief qualities necessary to a successful life. While 
we must possess some independence, we must also use 
good reason and common sense to sway its rulings or 
else it may do us much more harm than good in the end, 
and the final or best results of efforts of a life should not 
be lost sight of. 

The independence often exhibited by workmen in leav- 
ing good situations, with no prospect of bettering them- 
selves, because something occurs that is not in exact ac- 
cordance with their ideas of things which will in no 
wise injure them, is often fool's independence. 

It is chiefly workmen's wrong conception of the right 
use of independence that causes it too often to do them 
injury. In this all should follow David Crockett's ad- 
vice, "Be sure you are right and then go ahead," and 
having once started nothing should sway them from the 
course that their best interests dictate. In deciding on 
any course of action be sure it is not the fool's method 
of "cutting off your nose to spite your face." 

The first question to consider before starting to as- 
sert any unusual degree of independence is, whether it 
is urgently necessary in order to attain something that 
will be truly beneficial in the end. In asserting our in- 



222 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

dependence we should be most careful that we are not 
deceived by being affected by whims or passion instead of 
what are truly grievances, that justly command a stand 
for the right. 

Many workmen believe they are justified in display- 
ing independence to the extent of giving up their jobs 
with everything that does not go just the way their point 
of view directs them. They never stop to think that for 
every operative an employer engages, he has often more 
or less trouble of most every one to contend with should 
he throw up his job to assert fool's independence, which 
would mean shutting up his plant ; and this he could do 
with a hundred or more works almost every day if he had 
them to control. If an employer should permit per- 
sonalities and passion to control his actions, in mistake 
for true independence, he would make a very poor suc- 
cess of business with chances favoring his soon being 
bankrupt. If the spirit of fool's independence pre- 
vailed as universally among employers or overseers as 
operatives, the wheels of industry would soon cease to re- 
volve and labor would be forced to starve or plunder 
for the want of common sense to manage business. 

It often happens that some employee holding an im- 
portant position and hard to be replaced will "fly off 
the handle" and leave his employer in an embarrassing 
situation for reasons that did not justify such an act. 
If, however, the employer should assert the same fool's 
independence by shutting up his works, the fool's in- 
dependence of the rash employee would not be so ready 
to assert itself. It is true that the employee is in 
a much more independent position, or one in which the 
sacrifice would not be so great by leaving the shop, as 
would be that of the employer, nevertheless the em- 
ployee injures himself more or less, as in the first place 
no operative ever benefitted himself by unjustly leaving 
an employer, for the reason that he has one less door 
open for his services. This is of course a wide world and 
if one door is closed there are many others to which the 
workman can seek entrance, nevertheless it is generally a 



FOLLY OF FOOL'S INDEPENDENCE 223 

very difficult thing for most people to hide their identity, 
or to be so lost in this world as to prevent knowledge of 
their history or character following or preceding them. 
Every birth is known and the new born must have a 
name that in time is recorded in the memory of hun- 
dreds and often millions of people; its individuality 
even though it should be changed to escape detection can 
rarely escape being found. If it were possible to escape 
such detection, even then a penalty is often exacted 
through the misery caused by isolation from home and 
friends. 

The man that is not free to disclose all his past do- 
ings, no matter where he roams, is handicapped and is 
not as free a man as he that has nothing to hide. We 
could fill pages with incidents of employees exhibiting 
fool's independence by leaving good positions where they 
had their homes and many dear friends to which they 
could never return. 

It often happens that operatives will not go so far 
as to forever bar a door against themselves, but suffer 
much for going as far as they do. As one illustration 
of fool's independence we will cite the case of a young 
man who was admonished for possessing a " don't care" 
disposition during a very busy period. He had taken 
the great scarcity of men which existed as a license to 
be careless about doing his work properly and was 
often reprimanded, but knowing he could not be well 
replaced paid no attention to the complaints. As soon 
as his boss could spare him or "turn himself," he stated 
there was one of two things for him to do, either exhibit 
more interest in being careful or leave the shop. He had 
grown so "full of himself" that the fool's independence 
predominated and he left. After walking the streets for 
about two months he came back to his old boss and stated 
he had learned a lesson and if he could be reinstated he 
would be found a different person. He was taken back 
and the firm never had a better man in its employ. 
There are thousands like this man and many can profit 
by his experience if they will but study to use inde- 



224 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

pendence in the right manner and keep in mind that 
there are certain things in the exhibition of independence 
in an operative that are creditable, but they should use 
judgment and not passion or whims to decide what they 
are. 

One great trouble with many employees lies in their 
taking any censure or reprimands as being something 
personal. They cannot look upon their connection with 
a firm as being strictly a matter of business, and if 
they do not play the fool's part by leaving a good situa- 
tion for some insignificant cause, they keep upset about 
it continually until some other minor affair comes up 
to ruffle them, resulting in keeping them in "hot water' ' 
much of the time, for things which do not just suit 
their narrow ideas. They never observe that competent, 
sensible managers or overseers having fifty or more 
operatives under their charge do not go around fretting 
and "stewing" over the contentions they are compelled 
to consider as being personal matters. When disputes 
or trouble with the work of any employee comes up be- 
fore the successful employer or boss he considers it in 
a business light and when all is done with the matter 
that can be, it is passed behind him to be forgotten, and 
some other grievances taken up and passed, until many 
bosses may have had in one day more things that did 
not go to their liking to worry about, than many opera- 
tives as a rule, could have in one year or more. This is all 
possible of achievement when one looks upon any dis- 
sensions in a broad, sensible, business light and not as 
a personal matter. 

Few bosses ever censure or blacklist a man for trying 
in a manly way to better his wages or position, nor as 
a rule is any operative held in a properly conducted 
firm because he may possess "blue blood" in his veins 
or because he is good looking or has a perfect 
form to be kept and admired for posing. He is there 
strictly for business purposes, or to faithfully earn the 
wage or salary compensation he expects to receive. 
"Watch successful employers when bartering for their 



FOLLY OF FOOL'S INDEPENDENCE 225 

rights or desires. All is business with them and they 
conduct themselves strictly in accordance with its man- 
dates; the contracts for work they secure are upon the 
ground of making it cheaper, or better or in quicker time 
than some one else, not because they were good looking 
fellows, had "blue blood" or could pose well. Their 
personality outside of their being courteous in treatment 
had no influence in the transaction. In fact many will 
secure and fill contracts for commodities without ever 
being seen. It is the same with the operative, he is held 
in employment for what he can do and the more he can 
come to look upon all shop contentions with employers 
and his fellow workmen as strictly business questions, 
the less he will be kept in a useless state of ferment or 
worry, aside from every now and then loafing while look- 
ing for a job and running the risk of being in a worse 
situation than before, all because of being so rash in 
displaying other than the folly of fool's independence. 



CHAPTER XXV 
The Misnomer: "We Made Him" 

When a man advances himself, the question is often 
raised, how did he do it? In the case of self-made em- 
ployers we often hear employees say "We made him." 
The author cannot cite one case where the employees 
were justified in taking all the credit for having made 
their employer ; in fact if his advance were wholly in the 
control of his employees, the chances are that he would 
never have gotten started, or existed very long if he had. 
Man is chiefly what he makes himself in the business 
world and the tendency is to down a man more than lift 
him up. As a rule a man's start is his greatest battle and 
instead of finding his employees or any others for that 
matter, laboring to "make him," it is to "do him" that is 
more the existing condition. When a man starts in busi- 
ness it is rare he can do so with a monopoly, he generally 
must enter competition with those experienced and well 
established in business and if he does not possess good 
judgment, shrewdness, tact, pluck, hustle and good ad- 
dress he will either not last long, nor make much success 
in his business. 

It would seem that all which appears as necessary to 
some employees in one operating an establishment, is for 
the management to arrange for starting the engine, blow- 
ing the whistle and paying the operatives. These few 
simple things arranged for, they seem to think and act 
as though they were to do all the rest with the excep- 
tion of collecting the money, which after paying the 
wages and other operating expenses the balance goes to 
the office men, who in their minds have only to sit in the 
office or smoke as they walk about the works for exercise. 
Anything the official has done in securing business or 
assisting to create the finished produce can be but little 
seen or realized by the employees, and hence, is it any 
wonder we so often hear the words, ' ' We made him ? r 



> > 



THE MISNOMER: "WE MADE HIM" 227 

When work is once in a shop, in the hands of men and 
all the machinery moving smoothly, manufacturing ap- 
pears to be a simple affair to employees and spectators. 
The officials are the ones held responsible for procuring 
business and delivering perfect work to make a profit, and 
are in the best position to comprehend the factors which 
are truly responsible for the making of an employer. 
What assistance do operatives render a new employer 
to secure reliable banks and firms to transact business 
with ? What benefit are they in helping to economically 
buy raw material or prevent being defrauded in the 
quality of purchases? What assistance are they in 
obtaining the business necessary to keep a plant or 
work shop going steadily? Who is responsible for or- 
ganizing shop system, arranging work, soliciting and 
coaching ' ' help ' ' for the various kinds of labor ? 

If there are any cases where an employer is not fully 
qualified to transact all the above business factors and 
should often turn to his shop employees to assist him, 
he is not the competent manager he should be and can- 
not expect the success he would otherwise obtain if he 
should be able to continue in business. 

How much is an employee doing to make his employer, 
when he encounters obstacles he cannot or will not try 
to overcome, and leaves his employer to master the diffi- 
culties the best he can? How helpful would most em- 
ployees be had they no restrictions placed upon the 
quality and quantity of the work they were pleased to do ? 

In this last point alone is sufficient evidence to show 
the fallacy of employees making such claims as "We 
made him. ' ' There are few employees but could, if they 
would, observe the necessity of overseers being con- 
tinually after workmen to keep them up to standards 
of quality or quantity, note that any firm would go 
to ruin very quickly were all employees left to control 
all work to suit their own ideas and fancy. It is not 
meant by this that all employees stand ready to take ad- 
vantage of an employer if they could. There are some 
who want to do right, as much if not more, when the boss 



228 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

is not around as otherwise, but they are so few at present 
that an employer would soon "go to the wall" were he 
not constantly on the alert to look out for his own in- 
terests and the things that can "make him." 

The man that lacks ability to raise himself to the 
station of an employer is in no position to make others. 
Instead of claiming such credit, it would be more in 
keeping with the facts, if many would acknowledge their 
great dependence upon those who assume the respon- 
sibility involved in the investment of capital or manage- 
ment of business, in order that they might secure employ- 
ment to make a living. 

We have plenty of those who stand ready to place 
stumbling blocks in the path of those who are rising, or 
who have elevated themselves to be foremen, managers 
or proprietors, but it would be more becoming to man- 
hood if such would get sufficiently capable to raise them- 
selves. It is very easy to assume ability, but to 
demonstrate it is another thing. The pose and the looks 
of the unfettered assumer can so discountenance the 
able and the responsible as to give him the appearance of 
the most able-going, but who if called upon to carry their 
load would in too many cases soon show himself the 
pretender and incapacitated being he is. 

The unfettered assumer, who is always striving, and 
succeeds in keeping others down, is one of labor's worst 
enemies. This is often due to his magnetic influence over 
many possessing real ability but lacking in stamina to 
frown down the brow-beater. This prevents some from 
making the start that could place them in co-partnership 
with others, where they can find the support that they 
need to make their talents productive of the most benefits 
to man but where they would otherwise fail. 

Unless a man possesses business or managing ability 
and will utilize it, he must always remain an employee or 
one to never raise above their level. This is a plane where 
one cannot justly assert they make others when they are 
not competent to raise themselves to any height that could 
leave them subject to others' claims of "We made him." 



CHAPTER XXVI 
Uncomfortable vs. Skilled Labor's Wage Compensation 

It has been stated in answer to a question of fixing 
and governing wages that, ' ' the wages necessary to make 
the article under comfortable conditions should be that 
which fixes the price of the article and not the price the 
wages/ ' 

If we could start tomorrow and try to make comfort- 
able or agreeable conditions under which all should 
labor, such could never be achieved, no matter if capital 
should do its best to assist labor to attain such ends. 

How are we to make comfortable the labor of the 
locomotive engineer who has to thrust his head out of a 
window when steam or smoke blinds his vision, to keep 
a vigilant eye on the track ahead of him; of the brake- 
man when he must be on the ' * look out ' ' or open switches 
and flag trains in all kinds of severe weather; of the 
man who must be on the deck or in the rigging of ships 
in all kinds of storms and rolling seas ? 

How are we to make the labor comfortable for the 
puddler, who must face a fiery furnace, of those who 
must stand at their forges and anvils during hot 
weather ? 

How shall we make comfortable the labor of the iron 
structural erector, who must climb the high places and 
cling to small rods and purlins or of the roofer held 
by ropes on steep inclines to suffer the keen blasts 
of a cutting wind or heat of a scorching sun ? 

Can we make comfortable the work of a boiler maker, 
who must stand the deafening clamor and ding-dong 
of the hammer and plate ; of the moulders who stand the 
heat, gases, dust and smut of the foundries? 

How shall we make comfortable the labor of those 
who dig sewers, often standing in water and mud; of 
those who go down in deep mines at the risk of their 



23d THE COMPETENT LIFE 

lives; or of the teamsters who must go about early and 
late in all kinds of weather? 

How shall we make comfortable the labor of the men 
who go forth in battle on land and sea to protect our 
lives and country; or of the police who must wrangle 
and fight to help uphold our civil laws ? 

How are we to make comfortable the labor of fire 
departments who must imperil their lives to prevent 
loss of property or destruction of our homes by fire; or 
of those who man life boats in raging waters ? 

We could continue to write line after line depicting 
uncomfortable or disagreeable work. But were all the 
wealth of the world at our command to make such labor 
comfortable or agreeable, the task would be not only 
impracticable but impossible. It is well for civilization 
that there are so many that accept the discomforts of 
their occupation with a complacent instead of an ir- 
ritable spirit. In fact, what constitutes our ideas of the 
truly uncomfortable labors of life often depends 
largely upon our early training and that to which we 
have been accustomed, as is demonstrated by the fol- 
lowing : 

A born sailor would never feel comfortable as a Pull- 
man porter, and he that rides over the land in palace 
cars would not be at ease in the rigging of a rolling 
vessel. 

An actor would not feel comfortable doing the work 
of a lighthouse keeper and he of solitude and reserve 
would feel very uncomfortable facing an audience. 

A minister would not feel comfortable were he com- 
pelled to accept a policeman's position and the officer 
would not like it so well were he confined to close study 
and clerical labors. 

A clerk in a dry goods store would feel very uncom- 
fortable were he obliged to change places with an ore 
shoveller, no matter what time might be given him to 
develop his muscles. A tailor would be uncomfortable as 
a butcher and he of cleaver and knife would prefer many 
other occupations than making clothes. 



UNCOMFORTABLE VS. SKILLED LABOR 231 

A business man forced to accept common labor work 
would be as uncomfortable in his change as would a 
common laborer having no higher abilities, were he called 
upon to perform labor calling for more brain and re- 
sponsibilities than he had been accustomed to exert and 
assume. In truth, either one could be so uncomfortable 
in the other's position as to often wish themselves dead. 

Another difficulty lies in so many being unable to 
secure labor in lines best suited to their abilities. Such 
could never find any comfort or be in harmony with 
their labor, no matter what was done to lighten its 
burdens. All of the above conditions cause us to concede 
that the wages necessary to make an article or to per- 
form labor under comfortable or agreeable conditions, 
cannot be excepted as the rule to fix the price. 

In further consideration of this subject we have first 
to acknowledge that while all callings have more or less 
disagreeable and uncomfortable features, some are worse 
than others, and if we began to repel the most disagree- 
able, such action would at once start contentions as to 
why more disagreeable work should be imposed upon 
one than another. In fact the question can be asked, 
what right have we to inflict more uncomfortable labor 
on one than on another ? Is not the proposition one that 
would open a way for demands that could never be 
granted? A close analysis of the condition of different 
callings in which labor is engaged will reveal the fact 
that there is no work that man performs in assisting 
to sustain civilization that is not uncomfortable or dis- 
agreeable to a greater or less degree; it is true that 
nearly every person believes and often openly asserts, 
that his calling embodies much discomfort. Is it not 
well that this is so t for were it different those who 
really do the most uncomfortable labor, not hearing 
complaints from others, would soon believe they were 
carrying all the disagreeable burdens and contention 
could ensue to such an extent that we would find few, 
if any, that would willingly carry on the truly disagree- 
able or the uncomfortable labors of life. 



232 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

The easiest pursuits that exist have their discomforts ; 
cigar making for example, easy and comfortable as some 
may think it in comparison to the work of the locomotive 
engineer, brakeman, sailor, soldier, puddler, miner, fire- 
man, and others, has its workers that can tell you of 
uncomfortable or disagreeable things that are impos- 
sible of remedying and would lead some to think that 
almost any other calling would be preferable to it; even 
those engaged in clerical labor, who have from the 
manual laborer's point of view, the most comfortable 
situation in life can recite disagreeable conditions diffi- 
cult or impossible of remedy. 

It is true that some of the uncomfortable things, 
linked with any class of labor that can be suggested have 
been decreased and some are possible of further reduc- 
tion; but the question arises, where are we to draw the 
line in refusing to do the uncomfortable or disagreeable 
work that must exist, and what wage rate should we have 
to compensate us for our endurance of them in compari- 
son to what others think they endure ? 

If the wages necessary to make the article under com- 
fortable conditions should be decreed so as to fix the 
price of the article, could such a mandate be made to 
prevail throughout the world? 

By such a ruling the question of just compensation 
for ability, skill and experience would be wholly ignored, 
or accorded second place. All incentive to use brains, 
have skill and experience, the very qualities needed by 
man to invent and construct those things which decrease 
the discomforts of nearly all labor, would be discouraged 
and often annulled to give way in wage compensation 
to what might be conceded as most uncomfortable or dis- 
agreeable. The man digging a deep sewer who only 
requires sufficient intelligence and experience to shovel 
dirt would be placed ahead in a wage rate of the 
blacksmith, brick mason, carpenter, moulder, painter, 
plumber, structural iron worker and the like, as 
we believe all engaged in the latter trades, if they 
honestly express their views, will concede that their labor 



UNCOMFORTABLE VS. SKILLED LABOR 233 

is more comfortable -or less disagreeable than the sewer 
digger who is often up to his knees in water or mud. 

When we stop seriously to consider what it would 
mean or be to give those engaged in the most disagree- 
able and uncomfortable steady menial employment pref- 
erence over high intelligence, skill and experience, we 
come to discern clearly the impracticability of establish- 
ing the mandate advocated in the first paragraph of this 
chapter. It is best that we concede and strive to maintain 
the natural laws of supply and demand in connection 
with intelligence, skill and experience as being para- 
mount to all else in fixing the wage rate. 

The question of comfort in labor will largely take 
care of itself, as employers have come to learn that the 
more comfortable they can make conditions and en- 
vironments for their employees, better service is ren- 
dered and less difficulty to hold in their employ those 
of the greatest intelligence, skill and experience— three 
graces of competency. In fact, certain employers have 
exceeded the desires and tastes of some operatives in 
making the conditions and surroundings of labor more 
comfortable. Take, for instance, the many firms that 
have fitted up clean, airy and commodious quarters for 
their employees in which to wash and change their cloth- 
ing. For all this employees have been known to ridicule 
such comforts and considerations and go so far as to 
show their disdain by leaving their garbage to stench 
apartments so that others could not enter. 

"When we get down to the root of the matter, we find in 
too many cases that the workmen's ideas do not lie in 
their having the surroundings of labor as clean and 
comfortable as possible, but more in " killing time" or 
the opportunity to be careless and make a playhouse 
of a workshop : a place where they can be tolerated to 
do one hour's work for eight or ten, if such best pleases 
their fancy. Even in this attitude of mind there is 
not the comfort that many would anticipate, as there 
are those who can say if they will be candid, that they 
feel better when quitting time comes, if they have done 



234 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

an honest day's work in which they have been worthy 
of their hire, than if they had frittered away their whole 
day in laboring to please fancy's whims, or indifferent 
to the quality and quantity of their production. The 
employee that loiters or will not do an honest day's 
work is a detriment to most all and approximates the 
drone in the hive that would live on the labor of others. 

The nation highest in all that tenders the greatest lux- 
uries to the workingmen is the one that has civilians 
trained to cheerfully perform truly uncomfortable labor. 
Remove the spirit that disregards comfort in labor and 
any leading nation would soon drift back to a place no 
higher than the lowest. 

While it is true that there is the uncomfortable in 
all callings, even in idleness and the life of the drone 
or tramp, he is best off who accepts his lot to labor with 
a cheerful spirit. No workman should labor to make 
himself believe that true comfort lies in using his energy 
to loiter away time in a "don't care," shiftless manner. 
Every one should work on the basis that he is a man 
endowed with brains to use muscle and energy to the 
best interests of himself and mankind without the ap- 
plause of the gallery. The one that does this, honestly 
earns the compensation for enduring the discomforts 
in his chosen labor, which intelligence, skill and ex- 
perience justly dictate and supply and demand generally 
regulate. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

Benefits of Cheap Wealth — Maintenance of Good 

Wages 

No country was ever made great in all that pertains 
to the peace, comfort and happiness of its common peo- 
ple either by low wages or dear wealth. A wage rate 
that compels from fifteen to twenty thrifty adults to 
live in a four to six room house, without carpets, cur- 
tains, or respectable furniture, and without proper food 
and clothing, is ruinous to the home life and a nation's 
prosperity. 

To have prosperity we must have business. To have 
business we must have commodities to manufacture and 
sell, which can give employment to all classes of peo- 
ple. If we do not purchase any carpets, curtains, good 
furniture or household utensils; modern foods and 
clothes, it cuts out that much employment for labor. 
To dispense with the production of these six commodities 
for the homes of the working classes in the United States 
today would alone nullify employment for fully 3,000,- 
000 people. 

The business man or capitalist that desires to have 
his country lead the world will strive to maintain good 
wages as far as competition will permit him; and the 
operative who desires to have his country pay fair 
wages steadily to its masses will labor to give an equiva- 
lent in physical or mental energy, and will deserve such 
wages by his efforts to cheapen wealth. 

If we concede the claim that labor creates wealth, 
must we not also concede that wealth will be dear or 
cheap in proportion as labor gives an equivalent for 
the wages it receives? If, for example, the labor of 
3,000 hours of active earnest workers at an average of 
$3.00 per day could hew down free timber, haul it to 
the mills, from there to a lot and erect a house ready 
for the plasterer, we would have the creation of $900 



236 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

in wealth, minus that which remunerates invested capi- 
tal. If, by reason of inactivity or incompetency, labor 
does not give a good return for fair wages and this 
same house costs $1500, we would then have the cost 
of a certain amount of wealth increased two-thirds, or 
by $600. The difference between $900 and $1500 is 
a greater barrier to prevent many workmen from own- 
ing their own homes and reacts in depriving them of 
other luxuries and pleasures of life. The more labor 
can cheapen wealth, the more of it can labor pos- 
sess. 

Statistics show that in 1900 only 46.7 per cent of 
the "private families" in the United States owned 
their own homes. It, of course, does not follow that 
because a family does not own its own home, that it has 
no money, but it is the best of evidence that there has 
been some saving of earnings. 

We wish it understood that we strongly advocate 
good wages. We favor a good wage, in order to support 
the higher "simple life" advocated herein on page 24, 
but we do not advocate the combination of high wages 
and studied effort to decrease competency or activity, for 
such limitation is very injurious to the wage earner in 
preventing the majority of them from obtaining the com- 
forts and pleasures that they could otherwise enjoy, and 
in retarding or destroying prosperity, which is the work 
ingman's best friend. "AH is not gold that glitters 
and things are not always what they appear to be on 
the surface. We are often compelled to go very deep 
to discover what effect ruling policies really have on 
bettering our conditions. 

As few comprehend the great cost of labor compared 
to that of the material which is generally involved in 
all manufacture and constructive work, a study of the 
following figures should be instructive and profit- 
able. 

It is claimed that 80 to 90 per cent of all the outlay 
involved in the manufacture of Iron and Steel goes 
for labor. As an example, in considering the cost of 



■> t 



BENEFITS OF CHEAP WEALTH 237 

the ton of Bessemer Pig Iron, selling now, October, 
1905, at $16.00 per ton, we set off $13.60 per ton as 
paid for labor in one form or another. By an increase 
of 20 per cent, we would raise this labor cost to $16.32 
per ton. This would increase the wealth embodying 
a ton of iron $2.72, or raise the price so as to make 
a ton of iron sell at $18.72, without allowing anything for 
capital invested. If, in addition to the above increase 
of $2.72 per ton for labor, any circumstances would 
cause three men to do two men's work, we would in- 
crease the cost of labor one-half of $18.72, making 
the total labor cost of making a ton of iron about $28.08, 
an increase due to changes in wages and reduction of 
time of $14.40 for every ton of iron sold. 

If, instead of labor decreasing output, efforts were 
put forth to create greater efficiency— to have, for ex- 
ample, iy 2 men do 2 men's work, we would then have a 
reduction of 50 per cent in the selling price. 

As another illustration we will take the building 
of a workingman's house to cost about $1,000, and in 
which the labor cost is estimated to be about 90 per 
cent of the total expense, thus making the labor charges 
$900. An increase on this of 20 per cent in wages 
brings the labor cost up to $1,080. If, on top of this, 
circumstances causes 3 men to do 2 men's work, the 
labor cost is increased to $1,620. Adding 11.11 per 
cent to this for remuneration of capital invested we 
have a total cost of about $1,800, or an increase of $800 ; 
whereas, if labor should strive for greater efficiency, so 
that 1% men do 2 men's work by reason of higher 
wages or other causes, we would have the dwelling house 
cost $900, a reduction of 50 per cent from the highest 
cost given above. 

To give a better idea of the labor cost attached to 
manufacture and construction work, in comparison with 
that of the raw materials utilized, we will itemize the 
cost of material and labor for the construction of a 
house during 1905 to be erected after the plans seen in 
Figures 1, 2 and 3, pages 239, 240 and 241. It will be 



238 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

noted by the following table that the two amounts make 

a grand total of $1,645, the cost of the house. The labor 
cost is 91.71 per cent of the grand total, 

Cost of Cost of 

Materials used. Materials. Labor. 

101 yds. excavation $ $ 35.35 

39 perch stone 9.75 185.25 

3 cellar windows 1.50 4.50 

15,000 ft. lumber 75.00 405.00 

1 square gable shingles 50 6.00 

6 columns 1.00 18.00 

14 square slate 7.00 77.00 

15 windows 7.50 105.00 

18 doors 9.00 126.00 

1 book case 1.50 13.50 

1 cupboard 1.50 23.50 

1 mantel 2.00 38.00 

2.400 brick 48.00 

680 yds. plaster 10.00 195.00 

Tin work 1.00 20.00 

Painting 5.00 135.00 

Hauling 40 20.00 

Nails 1.00 15.00 

Hardware 1.25 40.00 

Total $134.90 $1,510.10 

Having treated the costs pertaining to manufacture 
and constructive work we will turn our attention to 
that of produce, those commodities which men must 
have, be he ever so poor. Foods above all else are a 
form of wealth that labor should strive to produce at 
the lowest cost, a subject also treated in Chapter II. 

In treating of the necessaries of life, we have clothes 
as well as food to consider. To-day a workingman can 
purchase a fair suit of clothes for $10.00, but should 
present wages be increased 20 per cent he would pay 
$12.00 for the same suit. This increase could be met 
by most men, but if by any circumstance 3 persons are 
held to do the work of 2, the price would be increased 




Fig. 1— Front Elevation of Workingman's House 



1 I 



H 



□ 




KITCHEN 



DINING ROOM 
it'x llV 



\> 9 8X 136 

**/ 



Pnl 



\ 









PARLOR 



12'0 X 13 0* Vi* 



HALL I 



PORCH* 



IS. 



Fig. 2— First Floor Plan 




Fig. 3— Second Floor Plan 



242 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

to $17.50, which to many people would now make the 
difference between wearing good apparel and shoddy. 

It is a belief of many working men that it makes lit- 
tle difference if the necessities and luxuries of life are 
high so long as good wages are paid. If those of such 
belief would only think deeply they would discern the 
fact that any increase of wages in spurts of prosperity 
rarely keeps pace as an equivalent to the increase of 
prices for the necessities of life and the discrepancy 
keeps working people constantly complaining of their 
hardships in making both ends meet. 

Some will argue that if all working men endeavored 
to be efficient, employers would only take advantage 
of the extra efficiency to increase their own profits. 
Those of this mind have had little or no experience in 
business, if they had they would know that competition 
drives employers to sell their products as cheap as they 
can in order to secure business, bringing us back to 
the cold fact that the consumer is as a rule the one to 
reap the most benefits from all extra efficiency of labor. 
This rebounds to the interest of labor more than of 
capital, as it has long been conceded that wage earners 
are the greatest consumers, their greater numbers ac- 
counting for the creation and supporting of about nine- 
tenths of the farming, mercantile and shop industries 
of a progressive country. Labor itself is, therefore, the 
greatest beneficiary in the development of full efficiency 
in the working man, thus cheapening wealth all it can. 
Caucasians are noted for their great advancement in 
labor-saving appliances, but this will benefit labor but 
little if our operatives work to the opposite end. 

While commenting on the chances of employers taking 
advantage of any extra efficiency in labor, there is an- 
other point that should not be ignored, that is, the grow- 
ing tendency among large interests like the steel corpor- 
ation and many business men to discourage prosperity's 
demands for creating inflated prices for materials. Ex- 
periences of past years have shown that high prices can 
cause a falling off in trade and often so completely de- 



BENEFITS OF CHEAP WEALTH 243 

press it that dull times will prevail. This growing 
practice of business concerns, is in keeping with the 
principles which this chapter advocates as being best for 
all labor to follow. Both capital and labor should so 
recognize the evils of extra high prices, that in less than 
a decade we would be compelled to call on memory to 
cite their injurious existence. When this day comes 
there will be a greater assurety for the maintenance of 
more steady prosperity than has ever been known in the 
past. 

The annoyances and losses which many employers are 
compelled to suffer on account of the inborn tendency 
of many employees to retard manufacture all they can 
through carelessness and loitering, especially in pros- 
perous times, increases the cost of production to a very 
large extent. If, instead of working against their em- 
ployers, they would "pull with them" as is the case 
with some wise and considerate workers, a much higher 
wage rate could often be paid and at the same time leave 
a larger profit to the employer than is possible with the 
lower wages. 

The spirit of shirking an honest day's work is akin 
to that of the "don't care" or carelessness that may 
cause mistakes, defective work or accidents which would 
cost an employer from nominal sums up to all he is 
worth. It is fortunate that all operatives do not dis- 
regard their employer's interests, for if they did, wages 
would have to be lowered much from their present 
standard or the cost of living be increased. 

The foundation of the disregard for the employer's 
interests, which so many operatives possess, is found 
chiefly in the lack of ambition and efforts to attain effi- 
ciency, which not existing in the adult, leaves little 
cause or incentive to spur the minor. If not cultivating 
such qualities in his youth, one will rarely do so in after 
years. The lack of ambition causes labor to be its own 
worst enemy, for without this it can never rise to take 
advantage of the many opportunities, described in Chap- 
ter X, that are always awaiting those who can get be- 



244 THE COMPETENT LIFE 

yond the mark of being- just smart enough to harass 
those who have passed them on the road and become well- 
to-do managers or proprietors. 

The ambitious, energetic operatives accomplish more 
to secure and maintain good wages than strikes do, for 
the reason that their example and efforts cheapen wealth 
and greatly prevent the costs of production from soaring 
to such heights that labor cannot afford the comforts 
and luxuries it can, when it strives to better its condi- 
tion by being ambitious, skillful and energetic. 

Trusts may maintain high prices, so as to greatly 
increase the cost of living, no matter how efficient labor 
may become, but such is artificial and when carried to 
extremes must end in dissolution sooner or later. 
High efficiency in skill to produce quality and quantity 
has merit, and is founded upon such correct principles 
that regardless what may be waged against its practice 
it is bound to survive in the end. 

Trusts of capital which demand exorbitant prices, in- 
jure labor similar as any organizations of workmen 
which may extort unduly high wages, as either can 
cause the products or wealth they create to be so dear 
that the average labor cannot afford to purchase them. 
The truth of this is often demonstrated by the building 
costs of workingmen's homes or shops which they might 
utilize in starting themselves in business. What is 
needed to benefit general labor or the masses is a uni- 
formity of fair wages throughout all fields of labor, to be 
regulated according to the time exacted in learning a 
vocation in connection with the skill and ability de- 
manded, a subject which is treated further in Chapter V 
on page 52. 

Establish a universal uniformity of good wages, or 
hours of labor, that will support the need among all 
labor for good homes, clothes and food with its re- 
spectability that we advocate, along with the training 
that will cause all men and women that must labor for 
a living to make good competent workers and managers 



BENEFITS OF CHEAP WEALTH 245 

of homes as well as of workshops and we shall have 
done more than has ever been achieved to help solve the 
problems involved in the betterment of labor. 

We believe the day will come when labor will itself 
greatly encourage good efficiency in operatives, in order 
that cheap wealth and good wages may give to the 
masses all the respectability, comforts and happiness that 
is practical for efficient labor to command. This can 
only be done by the judicious development of man's in- 
herited ability, and such should ever be the greatest 
aim of all Caucasians in order to obtain the many com- 
forts and pleasures that is assured by living the com- 
petent life. 



THE END. 



INDEX 

Ability- 
Appeals for greater development of man's inherited 42 

Best judges of man's 44, 51, 117, 144, 174 

Means for noting different 47 

Evil practice of ignoring degrees in 53 

Difficulty of judging 79 

Distinct differences in clerical and manual workers' 70 

Respect demanded for high 79 

Achievements of inferior Ill 

Nature's demonstration of difference in 116 

Ease of assuming 228 

Discouragement of 232 

Accidents- 
Carelessness of employees causing 37, 183, 186, 192 

Openings for promotions caused by 97 

Costly nature of 156, 186 

Causes for 186, 189, 192, 243 

The good side of 187 

Achievements — 

Four great countries' 22 

The only way to accomplish Ill 

Difficulty of accomplishing 112 

Activity— 

The evils of being devoid of 84, 187 

Benefits of good 188, 244 

Injury of studied effort to decrease 236 

Adversity — 

Instilling the practical through experiencing 67 

Obtaining a knowledge of one's strength through 112 

Courage needed by those meeting 113 

Parents exacting sympathy from children through. .171, 172 

Factors insuring happiness to those free of 220 

Immovable cloud of 220 

Affectation- 
Falseness of 179 

Discouragement of 180 

Affection — 

Necessity of parents winning children's 170 

Entwinement of children's and parent's 172 

Agent — Man as a free moral 155, 199 

Agency- 
Apprenticeship loan 107, 134 

Employment 107 



INDEX 247 

Ambition — 

Factors that must be considered by those having 97, 99 

Inconsistency of crediting an indolent person with 149 

The injury to labor by its own lack of 243 

Amusement- 
Pity required for some seekers of 89 

Beneficial effects of 150 

Injurious occupation of time in attempting too much. 

194, 195 

Anarchists — 

Ideas which create 67 

Isolated island for 151 

Apprentices — 

Sacrifices of opportunities for wages by 100, 101 

Cost of teaching 101, 102 

Rate of wages for 103, 135, 197 

Training-works for teaching 128, 137 

Apprenticeship — 

Factors encouraging minors to serve an 103, 104 

Means for securing money to serve an 107, 134, 135 

Independence of one having served a full 135 

Plans to insure the serving of full 136 

Artisans — 

Responsibilities of 11 

Qualifications of 109 

Means for creating good 128, 135 

Assumption — 

Attainment of competency prevented by reason of 

youth's conceit and 102 

Teaching children to avoid 120 

Evils of living the sham life of 149 

The disrespect which should be created for 179, 180 

Astronomy — Study of mind in comparison to a study of.... 204 

Attractions- 
Allurements of the young through 194 

Denial of to-day, for to-morrow's 195 

Resisting local by consideration of distant 197 

Baneful Habits- 
Enactment of laws to control 176 

Swaying the trend of mind from 176 

Baneful Traits- 
Friends' guarded reference to 173 

Character of and terms for 173, 174 

Secret of ridding one's self of 174 

Quotations of poetry on 175 

Detail description of twenty-three 181-192 

The decrease which should occur in 193 



248 INDEX 

Banks- 
Responsibilities of 11 

Qualifications required in presidents of 110 

Utilization of 28, 176 

Bar-Room — Desolate standard form for a 160 

Bar-Tender— Virtues of a temperate 155 

Bosses — 

Difficulties of comprehending the responsibilities of 17 

Necessity of 30, 31 

Character of people in need of 30, 34 

Evidence showing the need of 34, 41, 146 

Kings and Presidents having 38 

Incompetent 38 

Control of the universe by 41 

Duties of 86 

Building— 

High cost of 28, 236, 237, 244 

Places to observe poor and costly workmanship 48 

Benefits insured the masses by low costs in. .236, 242, 244 

Business — 

Advantages of a cash basis for conducting 15 

Factors to encourage 16 

The greatness of risks in 16 

Character of past embarkers in 27 

Advisability of minors gaining a practical knowledge of. 127 

Injury of intoxicants and drinking to 156, 157 

Exhibition of fool's independence by overseers ruining. . .222 
Inability of operatives to look on shop contentions as 

questions of 224 

Qualifications required by successful men in 226 

Need of ability to make a success of , 228 

Capabilities- 
Injury of misplacing man's 83 

Advisability of scheming to evoke criticism on 117 

Caution necessary in judging a child's 121, 122 

Factors to test the full 205 

Capital — 

Timidity of 15 

Conditions which encourage investment of 15 

Factors causing strife between labor and 27 

Hatred for 85 

Capitalists — 

Civilians who are 12 

Difference between small and large 12 

Encouragement which should be tendered to 16 



INDEX 249 



Career — 



Accident and fancy selecting a 116 

Selecting a 125 

Carelessness (See Accidents). 

Cantion — 

The artisans' need of 100 

The parent's need of the greatest 121 

Value of a few friendly words of 173 

The thorough worker and manager's need of 193 

Caucasians — 

Insecurity of 22 

Wide diversity of 22 

Need of developing ability of 29 

Demand for increase in numbers of 59 

Present incompetency of 126 

Character— Obtaining a foundation for the solidity of 121 

Characteristics — 

Vocations' demands for different 79 

Individual exhibition of general 80 

Plans for studying 80, 83 

"Vocation Day" for studying the general. 83 

Demands for variety in 108, 110 

Charity — 

Affliction of old age being dependent on 94 

Youth's disregard for 94 

Uncalled for seekers of 143 

Factors causing many people to seek 144 

Nobility of extending to some merited 152 

Sympathy for inebriates ill devised 158 

Chicanery — Injustice of practicing 85, 87 

Children- 
Restraining births of 59, 150 

Unwise practice of parents in teaching 121 

Using phrenology to learn the qualifications of 123 

Civilization- 
Captains of 16, 19 

A test query on maintenance of 21 

Pillars of 30, 34 

Greatest struggle of 68 

Value of the originator to 76 

Factors retarding advancement of 78 

Tossing ship of 86 

Cleanliness— 

The need of bosses to insure 35 

Employers' provision for maintaining 233 



250 INDEX 

Clerks— 

Encouragement for the employment of common 55, 60 

Qualifications demanded of 109 

Continued existence of common 208 

Clerical Work- 
Evils of so many seeking 55, 118 

One great distinction between manual and 79 

Uncomfortable and disagreeable labors in 230, 232 

Clothes— 

Maintenance of respectability by many people wearing 

good 24, 244 

Cost of workingmen's 238, 242 

Clown — Inability of and place for shop 187 

Colleges — 

Responsibilities of 11 

Benefit of 127 

Suggestions for leaching the practical in 127, 132 

Indorsement of physical training by 210 

Comfortable- 
Difficulties of making clerical and manual labor. . . .229, 231 

Commodities- 
Articles comprising 12 

Increased costs of home 28, 238 

Number employed in the manufacture of working people's 233 

Competency — 

Evils to be apprehended if we do not create 29 

Common laborers' 58 

How to attain 97 

Competents — 

Universal scarcity of 50 

Creation of greater wants made by the creation of more, 104 

Competition — 

Convenience of communication increasing 23 

Regulation of wages by business 235 

Common Sense — Some employees' lack of 145 

Confidence- 
Respect for the lack of 182 

Creation of timidity through the lack of 200 

Power of 200 

Costs of Living — 

Economical regard for the 17, 27 

Evils of high 28 

Incompetency and loitering causing high 29, 43, 50 



INDEX 251 

Costs of Production — 

Poor management increasing the. 27, 29 

Incompetency and loiterism increasing the 

29, 43, 47, 237, 242, 244 

Drink habit increasing the 152 

Country- 
Some are cowards in a 16 

Some needs of a 23 

Benefit of colleges to a 127 

Detriment of too much amusement to a 150 

Courage — 

Need of 15, 112 

Workingmen's display of 114 

Greatest display of 114 

Death- Uncomfortable labor causing some to seek 220, 231 

Development- 
Appeal for greater 42 

Achievements of 204 

Disease — 

Dirty homes creating 35 

Youth's just fear of contracting loathsome 218, 219 

Disposition- 
Operative's requirements in a 109 

Intermingling in children of parents' 120, 121 

Training of thorough 193 

Dissipation — 

Loss of health and life through 206 

Misery caused by 219 

Doctors — 

Responsibilities of 11 

Qualifications demanded of 109, 180 

Donations- 
Inaugurating training works by private or state 129 

Solicitation of 134 

Drink Habit- 
Substituting other cravings for the 27 

Enshrinement of the 152 

Unreliability of workers that have the 181 

Drinking— 

Poverty caused by 146 

Suffering of women and children through 151, 158 

Practice of discharging employees for 157 



252 INDEX 

Drones- 
Tolerance of 21 

Detriment of 86 

Incorrect conceptions of 87 

Mercy on the part of competents permitting the exist- 
ing of 182 

Discomforts of 234 

Editors- 
Responsibilities of 11 

Qualifications demanded of 108 

Education- 
Defects in systems of 31, 218 

Refining influence of 64 

Limited powers of 60 

Respect accorded to 75 

Limitation of time in acquiring 76 

Judicious direction of 87 

Defects in systems of 218 

Efficiency— 

Lack of 97 

Practice of self-control to aid 203 

Development of the body and mind to increase 209 

Reduction of costs by reason of greater 237 

Inability of all employers to take advantage of opera- 
tives extra 242 

Labor itself the greatest beneficiary of 242 

Working men's own prospective endorsement of labor's 

good 245 

Employees — or Operatives- 
Managing inability of 34, 37, 143, 144 

Wisdom of bosses and friends directing the actions 

of some 36 

Independence of 37 

Troubles of 113, 114 

Managing inabilitv of 143, 144 

Independent position of 222 

"Don't care" spirit of 233, 243 

Employers — 

Factors which demand the assuming of responsibilities 

on the part of 17 

Control of Jnpanese workmen's wages by their 144 

Non-independent position of 222 

Disregard for "blue blood" and posing by 224, 225 

Employment — Need of agency to secure 107 

Energy- 
Destroyers or waste of 84, 87 

What can be accomplished by Ill 



INDEX 253 

Engineers- 
Responsibilities of 11, 12 

Qualifications demanded of 109 

Environments- 
Youth's injurious 121, 194, 219 

Degrading effects of the drink habit 152 

Difficulty of resisting alluring 195 

Exorbitant Prices- 
Trusts, incompetency and loitering, causing 29, 244 

Present tendency of business interests to retard 242 

Experience — Advantages of having 64, 67 

Extravagance— Passing pleasures 149 

False Pride- 
Injury caused youths by fostering 102, 117, 118, 197 

Evils of stifling talents by 121 

Conditions in small communities which incite 149 

(See Pride.) 

Farms — 

Responsibilities of civilians in charge of 11 

Poorly kept 34 

Exhibition of indolence around 145, 146 

Industrious and thrifty owners and workers of 146 

Fathers- 
Good and bad judgment in selecting careers by 119 

Injury of bad examples by 168 

Financiers— Qualifications demanded of 109 

Foods- 
Cultivating desires for wholesome 26 

Increased costs of 28 

Fool's Independence— Exhibition of 143, 222, 225 

Foreman (See Managers). 

Genionsness— Misnomer of 112 

Gentlemen — 

The few that may be permitted to live lives of 64 

Evils of furnishing idle youths with money and good 

clothes to play 88, 121, 167 



Girls- 



Opportunities for 98 

Pitfalls for 219 



254 INDEX 

Good Habits- 
Working and saving 176 

Gossips — 

Employees' lack of confidence in 186 

A cure for 186 

Government — 

Responsibilities of officials in charge of 11, 38 

The few who assume the responsibilities of 31 

Furnishing surplus labor employment by 59 

Foundation of good 86 

Necessity of compelling man to work by a 146 

Guardian — Responsibility and hard tasks of 171, 172 

Health- 
Injury of worry, dissipation and indolence to 208 

Large responsibilities demanding possession of good.... 210 

Exchange of millionaire's wealth for good 210 

Vital force necessary to good 210 

Greatest destroyers of 211 

Greatest risk of injuring the 212 

Homes — 

Manhood displayed by those who provide good 21 

The need of good management in 34 

Discipline in training works helping that of some 132 

Horse— Comparison of some men to a balking 19, 84, 113 

Housekeepers— 

The value of good 35 

Spendthrift and slovenly 35, 150 

Evidence of woman's good management in 153 

Imitators — 

Credit to be accorded to 77, 111 

Distinction between originators and 78 

Unwise practice of parents teaching children to be 121 

Imperfection — 

Physical and mental 49 

Factors which can diminish 51 

Incompetency— 

Manager's 38 

Disgracing the name of man by 41 

Fair places to observe 48 

Thirty-three defects of man's 49 

Humiliation of adults through 95 

Inability of adults to steer minors clear of pitfalls of. .103 



INDEX 255 

Independence- 
Obtaining a trade in a training works affording adults . . 135 

Disrespect for too much of the wrong kind of 183 

Commendable spirit of 219 

Actions which make fool's 221 

Indolence— Where one can find evidence of 34, 35, 145, 146 

Insane Asylums— Advisability of youths visiting 169 

Intelligence- 
Man's natural inheritance of 51 

Opportunities for the employment of 52, 53 

Demands for 54 

The needs of 63 

Inability of 64 

Great waste of 68 

Non-employment of 118 

Intoxicants— 

The curse of and annulling the manufacture of all.... 154 

The curse of 155, 156, 162 

Character of losses incurred to employers by 156 

Soft drinks taking the place of 159 

Advocacy of unattractive bar-rooms for selling 162 

Jails— Willingness to escape responsibilities by entering 17 

Judgment- 
Good qualities that may exist in those possessing poor. ..18 
Reasons for the possession of 183 

Kicker, A Chronic- 
Belief in it being a duty to be 113 

Inability of 187 

Knowledge— Extent and evils of superficial 126, 127 

Labor- 
Worst enemies of 37, 43, 53, 146, 176 

Factors helpful for the steady employment of 53 

Conditions which should be prized by 53 

Demands for the employment of 54, 55, 61 

Universal distribution of 61 

Foundations for the betterment of unskilled 62 

Scarcity of lovers of 194 

Gratification of employing one's spare time in 194, 195 

Illustrations of uncomfortable 229, 232 

Reduction of uncomfortable 232 

Cost of raw material in comparison to 237, 238 

Encouragement of efficiency in workers by , ,245 



256 INDEX 

Laborers- 
Encouragement of 54 

Over-supply of common 54, 59 

Thrifty common 58 

Opportunities for 60 

Beautiful homes of common 153 

Labor, Betterment of— 

Erroneous conception some have on the 46 

Advisability of creating greater efficiency in common 

laborers to advance the 60 

Soliciting respect for skill to enhance the 72, 76 

Excelling past efforts for the 61, 100, 107, 244, 245 

Labor-Saving Appliances — 

Benefits of taking advantage of 7, 27, 52, 242 

Past inability of the masses to take advantage of. .. .27, 28 
Number of hand workers displaced by 55 

Law and Order— 

The supporters of 11, 21, 30, 58 

Intricate workings of civilization requiring 31, 176 

Lawyers— Responsibilities and qualifications of 11, 109 

Lazy (See Indolence, and Loiterers). 

Leaders- 
Qualities which assist in making 19 

Necessity of 30, 31 

Born 46 

Leisured Class- 
Comparison of "Sticks of men" to some of the 42 

Evils of aping the 55, 64 

Wealth or false pride rearing youths for the 164 

Liberal Arts- 
Comparison of ability required between mechanical and. .69 
License— Employees' unjust conception of .38, 41, 93, 157, 176, 223 
Life— 

The shortness of 87, 93 

The charms and advantages of middle 94 

Best end of existence in 164 

Quest of longevity or vigor of 208 

Life, Necessities of— 

Purchasers of the mere 12 

Dissatisfaction with 24 



INDEX 257 



Living- 



Higher standard of 27, 60 

High cost of 28 

Misnomer of the world owing man a » 87 

Benefits of temperate modes of 92 

Utilization of man's weakness instead ©f strength to 

make a 116 

Loafers and Loafing (See Loiterers). 

Loiterers- 
Methods to make industrious workers of 26 

Costs of commodities increased by 29, 43 

Wrong interpretation of license by 41 

Miseries of 92 

Luxuries- 
Attainment of greater competency insuring man greater.. 29 

Man and Men- 
Demands by the brotherhood of 23 

"Sticks" of 42, 48, 49 

Significance of "good" 47 

Unapproval of restraint or labor by 60, 175, 176 

Greatest failing of Ill 

Training which creates the best 168 

Inability of the "Stiff" 190 

Mastery of one of the greatest weaknesses of 198 

Difficulty of finding the identity of 223 

Managers- 
Value of economical 22 

Requirements suffering for the wants of 22 

Those in greatest need of 30 

Qualifications demanded of 109, 227 

Qualities contributing to making a perfect .... 127, 128, 226 
Placement of stumbling blocks to injure 228 

Manhood- 
Qualities that belittle 19 

Exemplification of 21, 155, 159 

Requirements of higher standards of 159 

Responsibility for attaining good 199 

Mankind— Perpetuation of 167 

Masses— 

The factors which maintain prosperity for the 22 

Privileges and comforts belonging to the 27 

Benefits not received by the 28 

Developing abilities beneficial to the 61 



258 INDEX 

Maturity- 
Youth's just desires to attain 94 

Discretion youths should be able to use upon reaching. . .156 

Maxims— 87, 88, 89, 93, 145, 159, 196, 203, 210, 219, 221 

Mechanics- 
Qualities of making the master 70 

Toleration of inferior 70 

Qualifications demanded of 109 

Mechanical Arts— Requirements to master the 69 

Mental Strength- 
Means to discover the best 205 

A peculiar difference between physical and 207 

Necessity of care of the physical to preserve the 

best 208, 212 

Liability of hard study injuring 212 

Care necessary to preserve 215 

Mind- 
Habits that sway the trend of 176, 177 

Sin of not aspiring to make best use of 204 

Scope and depth of the master 204 

Methods for testing power of a 204 

Factors necessary to test the power of a 205 

Means to retain good vigor of 212 

Ministers- 
Responsibilities of 11 

Demands for the services of 46 

Qualifications demanded of 110 

Minors— Turning point in the life of 116 

Misery — 

Injudicious directions of man's capabilities causing 123 

Isolation from home and friends causing 223 

Misfortune — Factors comprising 151 

Mongolians — Ambition and ability of 23 

Mothers — 

Drunkard's children dependent on 151 

Love's sacrifices of a 167 

Museums of Anatomy- 
Advisability of youths visiting 169 

Realizing^ the curse of sexual abuses by visiting 218 



INDEX 259 



Nature — 



First laws of 23 

Uniform treatment of all new life by 163 

Perpetuation demanded by 167 

Demands of 167 

Nonentity— Lack of independence causing one to be a 221 

Obstacles- 
Need of courage to overcome 112 

Lack of efforts of employees to overcome 227 



Old Ag< 



Afflictions of poverty in 95 

Providing for 7, 94, 96, 117, 167, 172 

The good and bad qualifications of 190 



Opportunities — 



Those not needing to complain about the lack of ....... . 97 

Changes in life opening 97, 98 

High wages for minors preventing embracing of 98 

Self-denials necessary to embrace 98 

Specializing annulling chances to secure 100 

Originality- 
Obligations of civilization to 76, 78 

Importance of teaching the young the distinction be- 
tween imitation and 78 

Developing ability and resources of the mind by 205 

Overseers (See Managers). 

Parents- 
Responsibilities of 11, 163 

Evil practice encouraged by indiscreet 102, 103 

Rearing children to support 164 

Obligatory sacrifices of 167 

Ties that bind 167 

Indiscreet love of 167 

Greatest necessity for early separation of youths and. ..167 

Wherein failures in training are to be credited 168 

Greatest support of worthy 168, 169 

Evils of practicing mock modesty by 169 

Trials in rearing children by wealthy 171 

Discouraging and thankless tasks of step- 171 

Injury of having unsophisticated 174 

Parental Government— Mr. Booth's advocacy of 59, 60 

Patience— Value of 189 



2<5o INDEX 

Patriotism- 
Influences creating 19 

Use of 23 

Paupers — 

Inability of wage-earners causing 22 

Five great countries' percentage of 146 

All the just causes there are for being 151 

The fearlessness required to set forth conditions creat- 
ing 153 

Pay-Days— 

Evil anticipation of 19, 80 

Confinement of bosses' and operatives' interest in 27 

Perseverance — 

Wonderful accomplishments of 112 

The great need of 115 

Inability to develop mastery without the possession of. ..183 

Physical Labor — 

Healthful effects of 212 

Pity for those unaccustomed to 217 

Physical Strength- 
Examples of how training can develop 204, 215 

Necessity of possessing good 211 

Maintaining mental strength by sustaining the 212 

Best time in life for the development of 215 

Time required to develop good 216 

Planetary Systems — Decisive, affinity and control of 23, 41 

Pleasure — 

Evils of seeking too much 22 

Advisability of moderate 89 

Loss of enjoyment by frequent repetition of 89 

Children's curiosity in seeking 124 

Evils of the young participating in excessive 150 

Advisability of moderation in seeking 196 

Poetry— Phrases of Manhood that read well in 43 

Poorhouse — Wisdom of having youths visit 219 

Poverty- 
Exhibition of 34, 145, 146 

Problems of 59 

Greatest promoters of 144 

Reasons for creation of 146 

Assumption being one cause of 149 

Extravagance in pleasures and amusements causing 

149, 150 

Intemperance causing 151 



INDEX 261 

Practical — 

Difficulty of some realizing what is 67 

Factors retarding advancement of the 68 

Training necessary to attain the 124 

Wisdom of combining technical and business with the . . 124 

Press— Demands for the service of the 46, 126 

Presidents- 
Responsibilities of 11 

Courage needed by many 114 

Training needed for youths aspiring to be 128 

Opportunities for a shrewd, practical, good business ... 129 



Pride- 



Best support for true 64 

Evils of cultivating false 88, 121 

(See False Pride.) 



Principles- 



Value of knowledge of 124 

Thorough study of 127 

Necessity of learning correct application of 128 



Problems- 



One of man's great 123 

Abolishing wretched poverty 153 

Professions- 
Phrases accorded 75 

Error of many youths striving to learn 88, 118 

Professional Men- 
Inability to find profitable employment by 55, 88 

Mistakes of parents' educating some youths to be 118 

Proficiency (See Competency). 

Progress of Inventions and Improvements (See Labor- 
Saving) — 

Inability of the masses to be fully benefited by the 27, 28 

Prosperity- 
Factors to start and stop 15 

Factors necessary to sustain 22, 235 

Factors encouraging 104 

Publishers— Responsibilities of 11 

Pursuits (See Vocations). 



262 INDEX 

Qualifications- 
Plans for studying 47, 80 

Outward appearances indicating the general 80 

Difficulty of judging the innate 80, 83 

Detailed description of different 108, 110 

Period of life to know a minor's 117 

Necessities of special effort to teach minor's 118 

Methods for discovering youth's 118, 122, 123 

Some difficulties in judging of 119 

Injury of the lack of one innate 122 

Parents' mistake in judging of 122 

Institutes for judging and directing of 123 

Quality and Quantity— 

Workingmen's own demands for 17 

Those held most responsible for 51 

Difficulty of keeping some workingmen up to standards 

of 227 

Indifference of some in working to attain 234 

The merit of high efficiency producing 244 

"Rainy Day"- 

Saving money for a 36, 37 

Weakness of human nature in not providing for a 94 

Training children to save pennies for a 176 

Realization of Immoral Practices — 

Efforts of parents to make youths have a 103 

Necessary for youths to obtain a 218 

The great benefits derived by the young striving to 

have a 220 

Recreation- 
Advisability of moderate 89, 92 

Necessity of taking some 150, 195, 215 

Change of work affording some 195 

Reforms- 
Age of business and social 46 

Value of Press and Pulpit influences to assist 46, 126 

Work for those interested in 137 

Religion — Self-respecting civilians' obligation to support .... 169 

Respectability- 
Principles involved in sustaining 24 

Necessities of striving to maintain 26 

The need of bosses to sustain 34 

Need of creating a passion for 152 

Self-denials and virtues necessary to maintain 196 

Cheap wealth and good wages as great supporters of. ..245 



INDEX 263 

Reap onsibili ties- 
Character of civilians who must assume 11, 12 

Those who assume some of the greatest 16 

Weight and strains of carrying 17, 18 

Factors that could greatly relieve overseers of. .. .18, 19, 42 

The devil's 20 

The masses' share of 27 

Inability of some to assume 54 

Youths' freedom from 94 

How many loiterers would suffer if others did not as- 
sume their 144 

Unreliability of drinking men to assume 157 

Inability of some to assume large family 163 

Saloons- 
Qualification required to keep 110 

Time and money lost loitering around 145 

Substitution of the soda fountain for 159 

Advocacy of a standard poverty kept 162 

Savages- 
Conditions prevailing in the government of 31 

Foods and shelter of 36 

Display of vanity by 176, 179 

Craving for pleasures and luxuries by 194 

Lack of thought for to-morrow by 197 

Schools- 
Ill devised 41 

Hard labor demanded by 63, 64 

Benefits of laboring during school vacations 93 

Indorsement of Sunday 169 

Self-Control— 

Disappointment incurred by relying upon others for. ...155 
How to obtain the greatest power of 199 

Self-Denial— 

Developments of 194 

Losses incurred by not practicing 195 

Apprentices' need of 196 

Self-Made Men- 
Obstacles overcome by 115 

Operatives' unjust claims for making 226, 228 

Sensibilities— Incompetency causing an affliction which 

pierces adults' 95 

Man's obligation to consider others' 175 

"Simple Life"— 

Indorsement of good manners and address in living 

the 149 

Advocacy of good wages to support the higher. » 236 



264 INDEX 

Skill- 
Factors annulling some requirements of high 53 

Opportunities for 53, 104 

Respect demanded by 69, 75 

Length of time required to increase 76 

Skilled- 
Opportunities for the 104 

Training boys to become broadly 126, 132 

Skillful- 
Difficulty of those not broadly trained to comprehend 
the needs of the * .70 

Slovenliness — Disgusting housekeeper's 35, 150 

"Smart Aleck"— 

Employer's dislike of 85, 184 

Ignorance, arrogance and conceit of the. .174, 179, 182, 186 

Smatterer— 

Ideas which help to create the 67 

Coaching required by 70 

Injurious existence of the 125, 126, 127 

Method that could displace the 132 

Smoking— 

Objections to 192 

Society- 
Remedy required for criminal conditions of 163 

Strife to live the highest simple life beneficial to 24 

Betterment of labor beneficial to all classes of 50 

Standards— . 

Suggestions for bar-rooms 162 

Quantity and quality 227 

Statistics— 

Of increase in cost of breadstuff, etc 28 

On extent of poverty in England, Ireland, and United 

States 143 

Percentage of operatives absent on Mondays 157 

On the number of people employed in the manufacture 

of tobacco 192 

Of the number of private families in the United States. .236 

Studios— Value and pleasure of using spare time in 89, 92 

Success- 
Need of employing spare moments to attain 75 

Man's greatest battle of achieving 226 

Supply and Demand- 
Application of credit for education and skill to 76 

Regulation of wages by labor's 234 



INDEX 265 

Talents- 
Character of different 108, 110 

Factors destroying the use of Ill 

Evils in directing children's 119 

Teachers- 
Responsibilities of 11 

The need of more practical 31 

The need of broadly experienced technical 128 

Technical- 
Need of utilizing spare time in study of the 88 

Business combined with the 124 

Institutions teaching the 124, 125 

Evils of superficial training in the 125 

Broad training necessary in teaching the 126 

Time required for teaching the 126, 127 

Theory- 
Examples of practice in 63 

Limitation of 68, 69 

Thoroughness— 193 

Thrift- 
Avoidance of assuming responsibilities detrimental to.... 20 
Achievement of common laborers 58, 152 

Time- 
Studied efforts to "kill" 85, 87, 233 

Criminal loss of 88, 89 

Evils of developing habits of wasting 92 

Tippling— 

Risks incurred by the practice of 154 

Cases where delirium tremens is preferable to 156 

Trades- 
Encouragement to learn 103 

Best means for learning 128, 136 

Tradesman- 
Consideration of scholars in connection with 76 

Independence of being a good 135 

Training Works- 
Chief utility of 60 

The author's first efforts in advancing the institu- 
tions of 128 

Suggestions for an ideal 128 

Plans for organization of 129 

Plans for training apprentices in 132 

Advisability of social clubs for 132 

Five factors essential to the success of 133 

What should be taught in 133 






266 INDEX 

Traits- 
Cost of living affected by 29, 244 

Artificial nature and conditions of ...244 

Underworkers (See Employees and Operatives). 

Vacation- 
Meriting high wages by sacrificing time to learn during. .52 
Advisability of working minors during school 92 



Vanity- 



Narrowing of the soul by 78, 179 

"All good mechanics drink" pleasing to 158 

Some aristocrat's display of 179 

Discouragement of assumption, and affectation, and 

consorts of 180 



Vices- 



One of man's most injurious 154 

Those that need not fear 159 

Habits that may become 159 

Destruction of competency by sexual , 219 



Vocations — 



Suggested holiday for the display of 83 

Paying employers for opportunities to learn 100 

Youths' preference for 117 

Misfortune of making it a lottery to choose 120 



Wages- 



Factors to sustain good 27 

Difficulty for some to exist on small 28 

Necessity for striving to give an equivalent for good. .. .29 

Elbert Hubbard on the law governing 43 

Impracticability of enticing "good men" from foreign 

shops by better 50 

Sacrifices of time to master pursuits entitling one to 

good 52 

Development of ability increasing 61 

Specializing affording opportunities for high 52 

Loss of opportunities by minors by reason of high 101 

Where it pays to sacrifice good or all .101, 104 

Giving an equivalent in labor for good 107, 235 

Rejecting opportunities to make good 144 

Claim of reduction of intemperance reducing 151 

Factors governing the rate of 229, 231, 233 

Author's advocacy of good 236 

Desirability of fair uniformity in 244 



INDEX 267 



Wage-Earners — 



Factors which make capitalists of 12 

Evils of inability in 22 

Injury of inactivity on the part of 236 

The greatest consumers are 242 



Wealth- 



Responsibilities of 12 

Earning power of men to create 43 

Preventing attainnment of, competency by reason of 

living in the atmosphere of 102, 103 

Character of people who complain about 145 

Factors which create cheap 235, 244 

Necessity for creating cheap 235 



Will Power- 



Inability of inebriates to control the 154 

Blessing of ability to control desires and passions by 

155, 197, 199 

Enactment of mistakes and great achievements by the 

same 199 

Factors that give greatest support to 200 

Evils of restraining or breaking children's 200 

Unconscious exercise of 203 

Desirability of possessing strong 203 



Women— 



Slothfulness of some 35, 150 

Unnatural sphere of 150 

Low wages of some 150 

Thoroughness in the training of 193 

Lonely lives of some 196 

Character of men that should be ignored and refused by. 211 



Work— 



Ability of bosses to do 31 

Operatives taking pretexts to lay off 145 

Strengthening effects of hard 208 

The number of hours and length of life a healthy man 

should 215, 216 



Workers- 



The need of competent 22 

Universal scarcity of competent 50 

Distinction between clerical and manual 79 

Objections to the employment of slow 187, 191 

Objections to quarrelsome 188 

Difficulty of finding employment for a slovenly 188 

Objections to unsteady 188 

Impractical nature of visionary 190 

The healthy constitution of steady manual 205 



268 INDEX 



Workmanship- 



Exhibition of poor 48 

Ways which employers have to use to dispose of poor. . . .70 



Youths- 



Discovering the qualifications of 87 

Mistakes in directing the education of 88, 89 

Bad practice of supplying money and good clothes 

to idle 88, 121, 167 

111 conceived maxims for 94 

When fortune knocks at the door of 95 

"Giving the boy a chance" 128, 136 

Parents' poor control of 156 



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